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 People who have been infected with salmonella may experience diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, usually six hours to six days after swallowing the bacteria, health officials said. — Victoria Craw, Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2026 Congo has been struggling to contain the virus, which has infected more than 9,500 people, killing nearly half of them. — ABC News, 22 Oct. 2026 Not every person who is infected with measles will seek care or testing, but severe cases are more visible in the health care system, and tracking them can help set the ratio to understand the full scale. — Deidre McPhillips, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2026 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 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for infected

Verb

Rau, wondering if his patients had been poisoned somehow, had his staff check the kitchen for contamination.

— D. T. Max, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026
Its death, poisoned by anti-freeze in April 2020 during Spain’s COVID confinement, sparks on screen and real-life the first criminal investigation in Spain and Europe for an animal’s slaughter.

— John Hopewell, Variety, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of poisoned

Verb

Less common modes include vertical transmission (from mother to child) and transfusion transmission, when contaminated donor blood gives rise to an infection in the transfusion recipient.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Oct. 2026
Some have polluted rivers, destroyed forests or contaminated cenotes [sinkholes], and all struggle with guilt.

— Anna Marie de la Fuente, Variety, 22 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 28 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of infected

verb

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