virus - definition, thesaurus and related words from WordNet-Online

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Noun virus has 3 senses

virus - (virology) ultramicroscopic infectious agent that replicates itself only within cells of living hosts; many are pathogenic; a piece of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) wrapped in a thin coat of protein
--₁ is a kind of microorganism; infectious agent, infective agent
--₁ has particulars:
arbovirus, arborvirus; bacteriophage, phage; plant virus; animal virus; slow virus; tumor virus
virus - a harmful or corrupting agency; "bigotry is a virus that must not be allowed to spread"; "the virus of jealousy is latent in everyone"
--₂ is a kind of representation, delegacy, agency
virus, computer virus - a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer; "a true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance"
--₃ is a kind of malevolent program