viruses
- 1Plural of virus.
Several viruses can survive on hard surfaces for hours.
Researchers identified two new viruses circulating in the bat population.
Note
An ordinary English -es plural. Latin virus was a mass noun with no settled plural of its own, so English supplies its native ending rather than a classical one. The plural belongs to the countable uses: separate agents, species or particles, as in two new viruses. When virus means infectious material taken en masse, it stays uncountable and takes no plural at all.
viruses is a form of virus
virus, noun: A tiny infectious agent of DNA or RNA in a protein coat that can multiply only inside living cells, often causing disease; also a particular kind of it, or such particles in quantity. Full entry
- Forms
- virusviruses plural
- Spelling
- virus → viruses: add -es
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /ɪz/, an extra syllable.
Use it in a sentence
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