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Contagion vs Infect - What's the difference?

contagion | infect |

As a noun contagion

is a disease spread by contact.

As a verb infect is

to bring into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen).

As an adjective infect is

(obsolete) infected.

contagion

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A disease spread by contact
  • The spread or transmission of such a disease
  • The spread of anything harmful, as if it were such a disease
  • (finance) A situation in which small shocks, which initially affect only a few financial institutions or a particular region of an economy, spread to the rest of financial sectors and other countries whose economies were previously healthy.
  • * 2011 , , Project Syndicate, Germany Must Defend the Euro :
    • And it was German procrastination that aggravated the Greek crisis and caused the contagion that turned it into an existential crisis for Europe.
  • (finance) A resulting recession or crisis developed in such manner.

    • Derived terms

    * anticontagion * contagionism * contagionist

    See also

    * quarantine * (Contagious disease) ----

    infect

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To bring into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen).
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katie L. Burke
    • , title= In the News , volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola.}}
  • To make somebody enthusiastic about one's own passion.

    • Antonyms

    * disinfect

    Derived terms

    * infection * infectible

    Related terms

    * infectious

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Infected.
  • * 1602 , , I. iii. 187:
    • And in the imitation of these twain, / Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns / With an imperial voice, many are infect .
    ----