infection

The invasion of bodily tissue by pathogenic microorganisms that proliferate, resulting in tissue injury that can progress to disease.

The entry or placement, as by injection, of a microorganism or infectious agent into a cell or tissue.

An instance of being infected.

An agent or a contaminated substance responsible for one’s becoming infected.

The pathological state resulting from having been infected.

An infectious disease.

An instance of a virus or similar software program infecting a computer.

The communication of a usually undesirable idea, emotion, or attitude by contact with other people or by example.

In biology, the hypothetical influence upon the tissues of the mother animal by the sperm of a male, such that subsequent offspring of the mother by other sires are infected with the characteristics of the first sire: a hypothesis invented to account for telegony. See telegony.