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Glite Dictionary
🦠 Ability to spread disease 😄 Spreading feelings
infectiousness

infectiousness

6.3
How easily a feeling or idea makes other people feel the same
  • noun
  • /ɪnˈfɛkʃəsnəs/
translation icon : contagiosidad
  • So can you give us in conclusion just a sense of the infectiousness of hope from your experience?

Examples

  • Her laughter had a remarkable infectiousness that made everyone around her smile.

  • Their second release, with its quirky twists and subliminal infectiousness, best captured the sort of neurotic cynicism that defines the college years (alright, maybe just mine).

    Blog text (17)

  • The infectiousness of the group’s enthusiasm motivated everyone to participate in the project.

  • The infectiousness of their joy was evident as it spread throughout the audience during the performance.

Synonyms

diffusion
vsinfectiousness
5 5.8

Spreading ideas or customs to many places

focuses on quick interpersonal spread of emotions and ideas rather than broad dispersal
contagiousness
vsinfectiousness
1 6.0

How easily a disease spreads from person to person

focuses on rapid spread of feelings, ideas, or behaviors not physical infection
catchiness
vsinfectiousness
4.0

How easily something like a disease or behavior spreads between people

causes emotions and ideas to spread quickly between people
spreadability
vsinfectiousness
  • Specialized
6.1

How easily something like a disease or idea moves between people

describes the trait that makes emotions or ideas spread quickly

Antonyms

isolation
172 3.7

A state of being alone and cut off from other people physically or emotionally

inhibition
29 6.1

Holding back your feelings or actions around other people

How Contagious

infectiousness
6.3

Surface Forms

infectiousness singular
infectiousnesses plural

Morphology

infectiousness = infectious (semi-transparent) = infect + ious + ness

The noun is formed normally from 'infectious', but the sense is a figurative extension (emotions or behaviors spreading) rather than literal disease, so learners may not always infer this meaning from the literal base.

Etymology

Infectiousness is also used for feelings or ideas that spread quickly; a helpful way to remember this is that infect originally meant 'to make into' something, so an 'infectious' laugh can 'make' other people laugh. So infectiousness here is the quality of causing emotions or ideas to 'spread' from person to person.