viral
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Spread by word of mouth with minimal intervention, to create buzz and interest.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vyruhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈvaɪɹəl
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.
adjective
advertising and marketing
Spread by word of mouth with minimal intervention, in order to create buzz and interest.
social media
Circulated rapidly and widely from one user to another.
noun
marketing
A video, image or text spread by "word of mouth" on the internet or by e-mail for humorous, political or marketing purposes.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (advertising and marketing) Spread by word of mouth with minimal intervention, in order to create buzz and interest.
Used this way, viral is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use viral
- “That funny video of the cat went viral on social media.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Relating / caused
Nature
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A transducing vector that uses a retrovirus.
A group of illnesses caused by a viral infection (usually restricted to a specific geographic area).
A group of illnesses caused by a viral infection (usually restricted to a specific geographic area).
Hepatitis caused by a virus.
Infection by a virus that is pathogenic to humans.
Pneumonia caused by a virus.
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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.