infective

C2+ Topic:Health & Medicine

US /ɪnˈfɛktɪv/ UK /ɪnˈfɛktɪv/ See IPA manual

adj

Meanings

1

adj
capable of causing infection; communicating disease

The virus remains infective for several hours on surfaces.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · capable of causing... infectious contagious communicable transmissible pathogenic

Opposites

noninfectivenoncontagious

Word family

Derived forms infectivelyinfectivenessinfectivity

Related forms infect infection infectiousdisinfect

Etymology

From Late Latin infectivus, from Latin infectus, past participle of inficere ('to dip in, taint, infect'), from in- ('into') + facere ('to do, make').

inficere Latin facere Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Health & Medicine Word Formation & Derivatives

# infective

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** ɪnˈfɛktɪv
**IPA (UK):** ɪnˈfɛktɪv

## Meanings
1. capable of causing infection; communicating disease

## Examples
- The virus remains infective for several hours on surfaces.

## Synonyms
- infectious
- contagious
- communicable
- transmissible
- pathogenic

## Antonyms
- noninfective
- noncontagious

## Derived Forms
- infectively
- infectiveness
- infectivity

## Related Forms
- infect
- infection
- infectious
- disinfect

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: inficere
- Root: facere

## Etymology
From Late Latin infectivus, from Latin infectus, past participle of inficere ('to dip in, taint, infect'), from in- ('into') + facere ('to do, make').

## AI Etymology
Infective comes from Late Latin infectivus, from Latin infectus, past participle of inficere ('to dip in, taint, infect'), from in- ('into') + facere ('to do, make'). The etymological trail includes Latin inficere and Latin facere. As an adjective, infective means capable of causing infection; communicating disease. The same family is visible in derived forms such as infectively, infectiveness, and infectivity and related forms such as infect, infection, infectious, and disinfect. Morphologically, the word is built from the elements named in its history, so the modern form preserves a visible compound, prefix, or suffix structure.

## Topics
- Health & Medicine
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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