How to Use virulence in a Sentence

virulence

noun
  • I was surprised by the virulence of the criticism.
  • Burgers said this change in virulence likely has to do with how the virus’s anatomy changed.
    — Fortune, 4 Jan. 2022
  • Screaming, spitting virulence swarmed the man dressed in neo-Nazi garb.
    — Joseph Goodman, AL.com, 22 Oct. 2017
  • The trend that will begin to tell the story of omicron’s virulence is a ratio.
    — al, 24 Dec. 2021
  • When a plague of unprecedented virulence sweeps the globe, the human race is all but wiped out.
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 1 Oct. 2024
  • Spain saw fires that showed the virulence of a summer outbreak break out as early as March.
    — Joseph Wilson, ajc, 25 June 2023
  • The coronavirus is held in chains, immovable and shorn of its virulence.
    — Tulasi Srinivas, The Conversation, 15 June 2020
  • The trend that will begin to tell the story of Omicron’s virulence is a ratio.
    — Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, 23 Dec. 2021
  • Danger lurks everywhere, from the virulence of the delta variant to the fires and floods of climate change.
    — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 28 Sep. 2021
  • The virus may also be growing weaker in virulence but more infectious over time.
    — T. Jacob John, Foreign Affairs, 11 Sep. 2020
  • For instance, a strain that spreads more easily often loses some of its virulence.
    — Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, 24 Feb. 2021
  • The number of people who get the flu shot, for example, doesn’t change much from year to year, even as flu strains vary in their virulence.
    — Daniel Engber, The Atlantic, 22 Mar. 2021
  • The type 2 viruses in live polio vaccine were the most likely to regain virulence.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 23 Feb. 2022
  • In this story, the South was a place apart, different from the rest of the country in the virulence of its white supremacy.
    — Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic, 1 Apr. 2018
  • In Earth Abides, when a plague of unprecedented virulence sweeps the globe, the human race is all but wiped out.
    — Lynette Rice, Deadline, 25 June 2024
  • In nearby Salyersville, the virulence of the delta variant has shaken some holdouts.
    — Sarah Varney, The Courier-Journal, 22 Oct. 2021
  • Because of its virulence, that could overwhelm hospitals and has prompted widespread calls for people to stay home.
    — Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, 19 Mar. 2020
  • The virulence of any pathogen depends not just on its own qualities but on the preparedness of the human immune system.
    — Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2022
  • Previous exposure to the virus may explain much of that decline in virulence, researchers say.
    — Arkansas Online, 24 Dec. 2021
  • But the real target and virulence of their bill is the set of financial measures aimed squarely at Russia.
    — chicagotribune.com, 28 July 2017
  • That’s in part because there are so many strains, and the virus is prone to mutations that change its virulence and transmissibility.
    — Maggie Fox, NBC News, 19 Jan. 2018
  • In the future, this new resistant line can serve as a diagnostic test to assess the virulence of any new Xoo strains that crop up.
    — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 30 Oct. 2019
  • Mariamman, on the other hand, carries a scimitar with which to smite and decapitate the demons of virulence and illness.
    — Tulasi Srinivas, The Conversation, 15 June 2020
  • That’s an important measure of a virus’ virulence, and a key guide to which people should be most closely watched and most aggressively treated.
    — Author: Melissa Healy, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Jan. 2020
  • Any small decrease in virulence likely will be offset by the large increase in caseload that's predicted, LaBaer said.
    — Stephanie Innes, The Arizona Republic, 7 Jan. 2022
  • This reduces the disease’s virulence, presumably benefiting the health of those who carry the trait.
    — Bradley J. Fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, 22 Mar. 2018
  • The speed and unchecked virulence of the attacks show another way that social media can serve as an accelerant to sowing discord.
    — Amanda Seitz, Anchorage Daily News, 20 May 2022
  • But what appears to be greater virulence may be simply the result of the Delta variant’s greater contagiousness, some experts say.
    — New York Times, 3 Aug. 2021
  • As quick-spreading as WCry was, its virulence was largely checked by a series of errors made by its developers.
    — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 27 June 2017
  • The scale and virulence of that scheme began to take shape at the opening House hearing investigating 1/6.
    — Eric Tucker, BostonGlobe.com, 10 June 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'virulence.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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