Contagious

//kənˈteɪdʒəs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Easily transmitted to others.

    "Last year's flu strain was so contagious that everybody in town got sick!"

  2. 2
    Easily passed on to others. figuratively

    "contagious enthusiasm; infectious laughter"

  3. 3
    Having a disease that can be transmitted to another person.

    "They were highly contagious, spreading bacteria to other people."

  4. 4
    Contiguous.

    "In Agypt's land contaygious to the Nile / Old Pharao's daughter went to bathe in style,"

Adjective
  1. 1
    (of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection wordnet
  2. 2
    easily diffused or spread as from one person to another wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
infectiouscatchingtransmissibleassignablecatchingcatching

Example

More examples

"The rash is, um, also incredibly contagious."

Etymology

From Old French contagieus, from Late Latin contagiosus, from contagio.

Related phrases

contagious abortioncontagious firecontagious magiccontagious shooting

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.