Words / V / Medicine

virulence

noun/ˈvɪrʊləns/

B2CEFR level
35/100Rarity: fairly common
TechnicalRegister

The degree of pathogenicity or capacity of an organism to cause disease.

Acquisition of the Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene markedly increases the virulence of certain staphylococcal strains.

Similar: pathogenicity

Topic: Advanced English in Medical English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More medicine words: Advanced English