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Glite Dictionary
🤒 To spread disease 😨 To spread feelings 💻 To harm digitally
to infect

to infect

79 4.1
Spread an emotion or idea to other people
  • verb
  • /ɪnˈfɛkt/
translation icon : contagiar
  • Emotions infect my decisions, they infect my plans.
  • infect the language

And I think that mindset has infected socialism.

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Examples

  • Nowhere are the ills infecting American youth more acute than in our major cities.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Thus, "leader of the free world" came to infect American language and thinking.

    Academic text (1999)

  • I'm not gonna let you infect my ideas.

    Repentance (2014)

  • I cannot permit you to come into contact with the others and infect their minds.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Moreover, the academy attempts to infect students with the lifelong virus of learning.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution.

  • "Telling the story, glee leaped from him, infecting everyone in the circle."

    Fiction book (1999)

  • His enthusiasm for learning can infect others and inspire them to pursue knowledge.

  • The positive atmosphere at the event seemed to infect everyone, leading to smiles and laughter.

  • She found that her passion for art could infect her students, making them excited about creativity.

Synonyms

to disseminate
vsto infect
48 6.8

To spread information or ideas widely so many people know them

spreads similarly but through contagious emotional influence rather than by planned distribution
to propagate
vsto infect
23 5.9

Spread ideas, news, or feelings to many people

spreads similarly but by contagious involuntary emotional influence

Antonyms

to heal
481 1.2

To become healthy again after an injury, illness, or emotional pain

to purify
30 4.6

To remove dirt and bad chemicals from water or air to make them clean

How Infectious

to infect
79 4.1
to galvanize
39 6.7
to inspire
837 3.2
to suggest
∞ 2.1

Surface Forms

infect infinitive
infected past
infected past participle
infecting present participle
infects third person singular

Morphology

infect = in + fect

Although historically analyzable as in- + -fect, '-fect' is a bound combining form (not a standalone English word), so a typical B1 learner cannot derive the meaning from its parts.

Etymology

Infect comes from Latin parts in- 'into' and -fect 'make', which gives the image of putting a feeling or idea 'into' other people. That's why a mood or attitude can infect a group and spread quickly, like a sickness.