coronavirus Hear it!

coronavirus Definition

co·ro·na·vi·rus (kə rō′nə vī′rəs)

noun

any of a family (Coronaviridae) of large RNA viruses that cause upper respiratory tract infections and gastrointestinal diseases in humans and animals

Etymology: ModL < L corona, crown + virus: so named from the shape of its outer shell

Related Forms:

coronavirus Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • associate: A novel coronavirus associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome.
  • mutate: A mutated coronavirus was also detected in family members of the first SARS case in Taiwan.
  • know: Viruses from the lung tissue in Toronto patients readily infected monkey kidney cells, and no known human coronavirus infects that cell line.

Adjective modifier

  • human: Viruses from the lung tissue in Toronto patients readily infected monkey kidney cells, and no known human coronavirus infects that cell line.
  • novel: Identification of a novel coronavirus in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome.
  • feline: This research has overturned 40 years of research based on laboratory strains of feline coronavirus being injected into laboratory cats.

Modifies a noun

  • infection: The relationship between the cell cycle and coronavirus infection.
  • genome: Infectious RNA transcribed in vitro from a cDNA copy of the human coronavirus genome cloned in vaccinia virus.
  • family: The cause of SARS is now known to be a new member of the coronavirus family.
  • protein: Cellular characterisation of the severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus nucleocapsid protein.
  • nucleocapsid: Cellular characterisation of the severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus nucleocapsid protein.
  • gene: The group-specific murine coronavirus genes are not essential, but their deletion, by reverse genetics, is attenuating in the natural host.

Preposition: in

  • patient: Identification of a novel coronavirus in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome.
  • specimen: The US CDC also confirmed the existence of this new form of coronavirus in specimens collected in Chinese Taipei.