vaccine
noun
Simple meaning
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.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vakseenSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
vækˈsin
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
immunology
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.
immunology
The process of vaccination; immunization, inoculation.
figuratively
Something defensive or protective in nature, like a vaccine (sense 1.1).
figurativelycomputing
A software program which protects computers against, or detects and neutralizes, computer viruses and other types of malware; an antivirus.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (immunology) 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.
Used this way, vaccine is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It turns up most in medicine or healthcare contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use vaccine
- “Getting the flu vaccine helps protect you and others from illness each season.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.