coronavirus
Pluralcoronaviruses (some meanings)
- 1The virus that causes the infectious disease COVID-19, also called SARS-CoV-2.
Researchers sequenced the coronavirus from samples collected in early 2020.
Vaccines to protect against coronavirus were developed within a single year.
Note
Since 2020 the bare word has usually meant this one virus, often with the definite article: the coronavirus. It also works before another noun, as in The Guardian's March 2020 report of the first coronavirus death in the UK. Where precision matters, write SARS-CoV-2, because the same word still covers the whole virus family.
- 2Any member of the family Coronaviridae, a group of viruses that infect animals and humans and carry their genetic code on a single strand of RNA.
Each coronavirus carries its genes as one long strand of RNA.
Several coronaviruses circulate in bats without making the animals sick.
Note
A name coined by virologists rather than inherited. In 1968 Nature reported that an informal group of eight virologists had proposed it for a newly recognized group of viruses. Corona is the crown-like ring of light around the sun, from Latin corōna, 'wreath, crown', and the viruses' shared surface structure suggested the image. As a count noun it names kinds by host, as in rat coronavirus and canine coronavirus.
- 3COVID-19, the infectious respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
She lost her sense of smell while recovering from coronavirus.
Many hospitals were overwhelmed by coronavirus during the first wave.
SimilarCOVID
- 4An illness that results from infection with a coronavirus.
Each winter brings a fresh round of coronavirus among young children.
The vet said the kitten had coronavirus and would probably be back to normal within a week.
Note
Here the name of the cause stands in for the illness it produces. In this use the word usually drops the article, as in 'the kitten had coronavirus', while the virus itself is 'a coronavirus' or 'the coronavirus'. The same shift narrows to COVID-19 in particular, just as the virus sense narrowed to a single virus.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "corona" (a crown-like circle of light around the sun) plus "virus." "Corona" comes from Latin corōna ("garland, wreath, crown"), from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, "something curved"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ("to bend, turn"). The name reflects how the virus's particles look under an electron microscope, with a fringe of surface projections resembling a solar corona.