Virulent vs Nefarious - What's the difference?
virulent | nefarious |
(chiefly, medicine, of a disease or disease-causing agent) Highly infectious, malignant or deadly.
Hostile to the point of being venomous; intensely acrimonious.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=8 Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.
* 1828 , , The Red Rover , ch. 2:
* 1877 , , The Life of Cicero , ch. 9:
* 1921 , , The Indiscretions of Archie , ch. 26:
* 2009 Oct. 14, Monica Davey, "
As adjectives the difference between virulent and nefarious
is that virulent is highly infectious, malignant, or deadly while nefarious is sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.virulent
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, passage=It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent , and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.}}
See also
* pathogenic ----nefarious
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- "If the vessel be no fair-trading slaver, nor a common cruiser of his Majesty, it is as tangible as the best man's reasoning, that she may be neither more nor less than the ship of that nefarious pirate the Red Rover."
- Mommsen . . . declares that Catiline in particular was "one of the most nefarious' men in that ' nefarious age. His villanies belong to the criminal records, not to history."
- The fact that the room was still in darkness made it obvious that something nefarious was afoot. Plainly there was dirty work in preparation at the cross-roads.
Fact Checker Finds Falsehoods in Remarks," New York Times (retrieved 12 May 2014):
- “I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.”