virus
- noun
- /ˈvaɪrəs/
- Specialized
- A computer virus can spread quickly and corrupt your files if you don't have protection.
- computer virus
- virus scanner
- virus-scanning software
They are the people that are responsible for the Pegasus virus.
- They are the people that are responsible for the Pegasus virus.
- You know, the viruses and worms and exploits.
Examples
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I'm writing a virus that could shut it down.
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When a computer has a virus, you just delete it.
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Experiments with blocking software and virus attacks have had only limited success.
Academic text (2001) -
It gave your computer a virus?
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We can enter here, upload the virus, and set off an explosion that could disable it.
Fiction book (1996) -
The security gateway provided an almost insurmountable bulwark against virus attacks from the general university network.
Fiction book (2002) -
He managed to remove the virus from his computer before it could cause any major damage.
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Installing antivirus software helps prevent virus attacks that can compromise your system.
Synonyms
Programs that harm computers or let someone access them without permission
A program that copies itself and damages files on a computer
Software that harms computers, for example by stealing data
Antonyms
- Specialized
A program that finds and removes computer viruses and other harmful programs
Compounds
- Specialized
A virus spread by mosquito bites that can make people and animals sick and sometimes cause brain infection
- Specialized
A very dangerous virus that causes severe bleeding and high fever in people and animals
- Specialized
A virus that attacks the body's defence system by destroying important immune cells and causes AIDS
- Specialized
A very infectious virus that causes a serious fever illness in people and monkeys
- Specialized
A germ that causes painful sores on the skin, often around the mouth or genitals
- Specialized
A group of viruses that infect skin, mouth, or genitals and can cause warts and sometimes cancer
- Specialized
A small germ that often causes hand, foot, and mouth disease in children
- Specialized
A common virus that often causes a sickness that makes you very tired and is linked to some cancers
- Specialized
A virus that lives in mice or rats and can make people sick
- Specialized
A virus that causes a serious bleeding fever in people in Bolivia and spreads from rodents
- Specialized
A virus that infects people and can cause a blood cancer of white blood cells called T cells
- Specialized
A virus that causes a serious fever with bleeding in Argentina and spreads to people from rats and mice
- Specialized
A virus that causes soft, jelly-like tumors in rabbits and sometimes humans
- Specialized
A virus that infects the breathing tubes of young children and can cause serious chest infections like pneumonia
- Specialized
A virus that makes onion plants grow poorly and their leaves turn yellow
- Specialized
A virus that causes infections of the nose and throat, like the common cold, often in young children
- Specialized
A virus that causes tumors in animals and scientists use in cancer research
- Specialized
A germ that makes potato plants small and their leaves turn yellow
- Specialized
A virus that infects tobacco and other plants, making leaves show light and dark patches
- Specialized
A germ that stays inactive in the body for a long time before causing symptoms
- Specialized
A milder form of smallpox that kills about one person in a hundred
- Specialized
A tiny germ that causes brain inflammation in people and animals and spreads by infected mosquitoes
- Offensive
An insulting phrase for strong social justice ideas seen as spreading online and changing people's views
- Specialized
A plant virus spread by small jumping insects that causes growths on plants
How Damaging
Surface Forms
Etymology
The computer word virus was named after the biological virus (from Latin meaning 'poison') because it 'infects' files, can copy itself and spread, so it behaves like a disease for computers.