Definition of VACCINE

vaccine

Meanings

Plural: vaccines

Noun

  • immunogen consisting of a suspension of weakened or dead pathogenic cells injected in order to stimulate the production of antibodies
  • A substance given to stimulate a body's production of antibodies and provide immunity against a disease without causing the disease itself in the treatment, prepared from the agent that causes the disease (or a derivative of it; or a related, also effective, but safer disease), or a synthetic substitute; also, a dose of such a substance.
  • The process of vaccination; immunization, inoculation.
  • The material taken from cowpox pustules used for vaccination against smallpox.
  • The disease cowpox, especially as a source of material for vaccination against smallpox.
  • Something defensive or protective in nature, like a vaccine (sense 1.1).
  • A software program which protects computers against, or detects and neutralizes, computer viruses and other types of malware; an antivirus.

Adj

  • Of, pertaining to, caused by, or characteristic of cowpox.
  • Of or pertaining to cowpox as a source of material for vaccination against smallpox; also, of or pertaining to such material used for vaccination.
  • Of, pertaining to, or derived from cattle.

Verb

  • Synonym of vaccinate (“to treat (a person or an animal) with a vaccine to produce immunity against a disease”).

Origin / Etymology

PIE word
*woḱéh₂
Learned borrowing from Latin vaccīnus (“of or derived from a cow”), from vacca (“cow (female cattle)”) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Sense 1 refers to the early use of the cowpox virus as a vaccination against smallpox: see New Latin variolae vaccīnae (“cowpox”, plural, literally “infectious diseases of cattle causing pustules”), coined by the British physician and scientist Edward Jenner (1749–1823).

Scrabble Score: 14

vaccine is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
vaccine is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
vaccine is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 18

vaccine is a valid Words With Friends word