INFECTED Synonyms: 63 Similar and Opposite Words

infected

verb

Definition of infected

past tense of infect

as in poisoned

to pass something harmful (such as a disease) to someone or something else If you come to work when you're sick, you'll infect everyone in the office.

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of infected Wild game — including deer, elk, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep — infected with EHD usually spike a fever within seven days of being bitten. — Kris Millgate, Outdoor Life, 14 Oct. 2026 Her heart cells had been infected with parvovirus B19, the virus that more commonly causes Fifth Disease. — Raj Panjabi, Time, 13 Oct. 2026 Many of these cases occurred after people became infected at a youth wrestling tournament tin February and subsequently spread the virus in school and within their households. — ABC News, 13 Oct. 2026 The high fevers brought on by listeria can cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women who are infected. — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 10 Oct. 2026 In 2023, my team and I were assessing the nation’s pandemic influenza plans when the Situation Room notified me that H5N1 influenza had infected a father and killed his daughter in a remote Cambodian village. — Raj Panjabi, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2026 People infected with the flu can spread the virus beginning about one day before symptoms appear and for roughly five to seven days after becoming sick, according to the CDC. — Sacbee.com, 9 Oct. 2026 The person lived in Arizona and was probably infected while working with sick cats. — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 8 Oct. 2026 At the same time, suspicion is not confirmation, and monitoring contacts does not mean they are infected. — Krutika Kuppalli, STAT, 6 Oct. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for infected

Verb

The video cuts to Swift living out exactly what Johnson’s been living through, revealing that Farrell poisoned Swift, leading to her death.

— Nicole Fell, HollywoodReporter, 27 Sep. 2026
In her other case, Hogan has been accused of trying to falsify a paternity test in a custody battle with her ex-fiancé, who was not the same man who was allegedly poisoned.

— Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 25 Sep. 2026

Definition of poisoned

Verb

Yuzhou Zhang, a biologist at Northwest A&F University in China, was studying how plants move in response to gravity in a laboratory in Austria when one of his agar plates became contaminated with airborne microbes.

— Joanna Thompson, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2026
Anything contaminated with feces containing Shigella could cause an infection — even a very small amount of it.

— Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of contaminated

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infect

infected

infecting

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“Infected.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/infected. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of infected

verb

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