Pathogenic

//pæθəˈd͡ʒɛnɪk// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Able to cause (harmful) disease.

    "While the environment is teeming with bacteria and fungi, most are not pathogenic."

  2. 2
    Consisting of harsh, percussive, nonverbal sounds.

    "Melogenic music represents the wide middle area between the extremes of logogenic and pathogenic music."

Adjective
  1. 1
    able to cause disease wordnet

Example

More examples

"Infectious diseases are caused by prions, viruses, rickettsia, chlamydia, bacteria, pathogenic fungi and protozoa."

Etymology

From patho- + -genic.

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