What does "infection" mean?

The act or process of infecting.

Infection

Common synonyms include: contagion, abomination, adulteration, aerial infection, afflatus, airborne infection.

//ɪnˈfɛkʃən// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
The act or process of infecting. countable, uncountable
2
(international law) illegality that taints or contaminates a ship or cargo rendering it liable to seizure wordnet
3
An uncontrolled growth of harmful microorganisms in a host. countable, uncountable
"An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic[…]real kidneys[…]. But they are nothing like as efficient, and can cause bleeding, clotting and infection—not to mention inconvenience for patients, who typically need to be hooked up to one three times a week for hours at a time."
4
moral corruption or contamination wordnet
5
A disease caused by such presence of a pathogen. countable, uncountable
"As the previously used chemotherapeutic agents have only proved themselves to be spirochetostatic and not spirochetocidal, the patient is liable to a delayed infection which may not become manifest for years."

Show 6 more definitions

6
the communication of an attitude or emotional state among a number of people wordnet
7
A visible sign of such a disease, such as the suppuration of a wound. countable, uncountable
8
an incident in which an infectious disease is transmitted wordnet
9
(medicine) the invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms and their multiplication which can lead to tissue damage and disease wordnet
10
(phonetics) the alteration of a speech sound under the influence of a neighboring sound wordnet
11
the pathological state resulting from the invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms wordnet