virus

7 definitions • 8 examples

an extremely small piece of organic material that causes disease in humans, animals, and plants:

the chickenpox/flu/herpes/mumps virus

Evidence suggested that the AIDS virus was spreading very quickly among the heterosexual community.

a disease caused by a virus:

I don't know exactly what's wrong with her - I think she has some kind of virus.

Several employees were off work with a vomiting virus.

a computer program or part of a computer program that can make copies of itself and is intended to prevent the computer from working normally

a very small organism that causes disease in humans, animals, and plants

A virus is also a disease caused by a virus:

She’s had a virus for several days.

a hidden set of instructions in a computer program that is intended to introduce faults into a computer system or cause it to perform actions that were not planned

a harmful computer program intended to prevent computers from working normally:

All their customer information was wiped off the computer by a virus.

I got a virus alert when I downloaded my email.

Virus attacks are the largest source of financial loss, followed by unauthorized access.