contagion

1. 1.

   any disease easily transmitted by contact

   Synonymscontagious disease

   Broadercommunicable disease

   Narrowerinfluenzameaslesdiphtheriascarlet feverpoxVincent's anginavenereal disease
2. 2.

   an incident in which an infectious disease is transmitted

   Synonymsinfectiontransmission

   Broaderincident
3. 3.

   the communication of an attitude or emotional state among a number of people

   “a contagion of mirth”

   “the infection of his enthusiasm for poetry”

   Synonymsinfection

   Broadercommunication

Other forms of contagion

plural

contagions·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about contagion

What does contagion mean?

contagion means "any disease easily transmitted by contact". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in contagion?

contagion has 3 syllables: con-ta-gion. The stress falls on "ta". In IPA it is /kənˈteɪdʒən/.

What is another word for contagion?

Close synonyms include contagious disease, infection, transmission, infection. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is contagion a common word?

contagion is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.