contagious

comparative more contagious · superlative most contagious

1. Easily transmitted to others.

   Last year's flu strain was so contagious that everybody in town got sick!

   Antonyms: noncontagious, noncommunicable, nontransmissible

2. figurativelyEasily passed on to others.

   contagious enthusiasm; infectious laughter

   4 more examples

   Wearing jeans was a contagious fad at that time.

   The taverns of our ancestors would ill bear contrasting with the clubs of to-day; but many a gay midnight was past in the former:—midnights, whose mirth has descended even to us; half the jests, whose gaiety is still contagious; half the epigrams, whose point is yet felt, were born of those brief and brilliant hours.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 75

   Cause love is contagious, when it's alright / Love is contagious, when it's alright / Love is alright

   2000, Damon Gough, “Magic in the Air”, in The Hour of Bewilderbeast, performed by Badly Drawn Boy

   One such investigation described how kindness can be contagious.

   2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR

   Synonyms: infectious, spreadable

3. Having a disease that can be transmitted to another person.

   They were highly contagious, spreading bacteria to other people.

4. Contiguous.

   In Agypt's land contaygious to the Nile / Old Pharao's daughter went to bathe in style,

   19th century, Zozimus, “The Finding of Moses”