infection

B1 Topic:Health & Medicine

US /ɪnˈfɛkʃən/ See IPA manual

Freq #4881

Meanings

1

noun
An illness caused by harmful germs entering the body.

She took antibiotics to fight a chest infection.
2

noun
The process of a disease being passed to or spreading inside the body.

Washing your hands helps prevent the infection of others.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

2 noun · the process of a disease... transmission

Word family

Forms infections

Derived forms agroinfectionanti-infectionantiinfectionautoinfectioncoinfectioncross-infectiondisinfectionhydrofectionhyperinfectioninfectiologyinfectionalinfectionism

Related forms exfectioninfectinfectableinfected infective

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

tapeworm infection
an infection caused by parasitic tapeworms in the body

Noun + noun

Etymology

From Old French infection, from Late Latin īnfectiō. Equivalent to infect + -ion.

*dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European infection Old French īnfectiō la-lat

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Health & Medicine

External links

# infection

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ɪnˈfɛkʃən/
**Frequency rank:** 4881

## Meanings
1. An illness caused by harmful germs entering the body.
2. The process of a disease being passed to or spreading inside the body.

## Examples
- She took antibiotics to fight a chest infection.
- Washing your hands helps prevent the infection of others.

## Derived Forms
- agroinfection
- anti-infection
- antiinfection
- autoinfection
- coinfection
- cross-infection
- disinfection
- hydrofection
- hyperinfection
- infectiology
- infectional
- infectionism

## Related Forms
- exfection
- infect
- infectable
- infected
- infective

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *dʰeh₁-
- Root: infection
- Root: īnfectiō

## Etymology
From Old French infection, from Late Latin īnfectiō. Equivalent to infect + -ion.

## AI Etymology
Infection comes from Old French infection, from Late Latin īnfectiō. Equivalent to infect + -ion. The analysis is mainly morphological: the modern nominal form is built from the named base and affix. The historical line also includes *dʰeh₁-.

## Topics
- Health & Medicine

markdown