human immunodeficiency virus

1. 1.

   the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS); it replicates in and kills the helper T cells

   SynonymsHIV

   Broaderretrovirus

Questions about human immunodeficiency virus

What does human immunodeficiency virus mean?

human immunodeficiency virus means "the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS); it replicates in and kills the helper T cells".

What is another word for human immunodeficiency virus?

Close synonyms include HIV. 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 human immunodeficiency virus a common word?

human immunodeficiency virus is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.