infectious

1. 1.

   caused by infection or capable of causing infection

   “viruses and other infective agents”

   “a carrier remains infective without himself showing signs of the disease”

   Synonymsinfective

   Similarseptic
2. 2.

   easily spread

   “fear is exceedingly infectious; children catch it from their elders”

   Antonymsnoninfectious

   Similarcatchingcontagiouscorrupting
3. 3.

   of or relating to infection

   “infectious hospital”

   “infectious disease”

Questions about infectious

What does infectious mean?

infectious means "caused by infection or capable of causing infection". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in infectious?

infectious has 3 syllables: in-fec-tious. The stress falls on "fec". In IPA it is /ˌɪnˈfɛkʃəs/.

What is another word for infectious?

Close synonyms include infective. 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.

What is the opposite of infectious?

The recorded antonyms are noninfectious.

Is infectious a common word?

infectious is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.