# immune

Pronunciation: say "i-MYOON" /ɪˈmjuːn/

## Adjective

1. Protected against a disease, either through vaccination or through the body's own inherited resistance to pathogens.
   - Simple: Safe from a disease because your body can fight it off, or because you got a shot.
   - _Once vaccinated, most children become immune to the virus._
   - _Survivors of the infection are often immune to reinfection for years._
2. Exempt from something; not subject to a duty, rule, or effect that applies to others.
   - Simple: Free from something that affects or controls other people.
   - _Senators are not immune from criticism over their votes._
   - _The company believed it was immune to the economic downturn._
3. Not vulnerable; unable to be harmed or affected by something.
   - Simple: Safe from harm and not able to be hurt by something.
   - _Their fortress was thought to be immune to attack._
   - _She acts as though she is immune to embarrassment._
4. Relating to or involving the body's system of defense against infection and disease.
   - Simple: Relating to the body's natural defense against disease.
   - _The immune system identifies and destroys harmful invaders._
   - _Doctors studied her unusually strong immune response to the infection._

## Noun

5. A person who cannot be infected by a specific disease owing to natural or acquired resistance.
   - Simple: Someone who cannot catch a particular disease because their body resists it.
   - _Epidemiologists tracked how many immunes remained in the population after the epidemic._
   - _An immune can sometimes still carry and spread the pathogen to others._

## Verb

6. To render a person or animal resistant to a particular disease. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To make a person or animal able to resist a disease.

## Origin

From Middle English, via Middle French immun, from Latin immūnis ("exempt from public service"), formed from in- ("not") plus mūnus ("service").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/immune (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).