communicable
/kəˈmjuːnɪkəbl/ (bre, ipa) · /kəˈmjuːnɪkəbl/ (ame, ipa) · /kə-ˈmyü-ni-kə-bəl/ (ame, mw)
communicable — adjective
- communicablepositive
- more communicablecomparative
- most communicablesuperlative
1. describing an illness that one living thing can pass to another through contact,
describing an illness that one living thing can pass to another through contact, the air, water, or insects.
Measles is a highly communicable disease that spreads quickly through unvaccinated children.
collocation: communicable disease (most frequent noun pairing)
Dr. Cyrus warned the village that the new fever was communicable through contaminated drinking water.
predicative: be communicable through [route of transmission]
Public health officials must isolate patients carrying a communicable infection until tests come back clear.
Rabies is communicable from wild animals to humans through a single bite or scratch.
The hospital posted signs reminding visitors that flu is communicable even before symptoms appear.
- transmissible
near-exact medical synonym; slightly more technical, often used in epidemiology papers
- contagious
everyday word; strictly means spread by direct or close contact, narrower than 'communicable'
- infectious
spread by germs entering the body; overlaps with 'communicable' but does not cover non-germ routes such as insect bites
- non-communicable
the standard public-health pair, used in phrases like 'non-communicable diseases' (heart disease, diabetes)
文法句型
communicable disease
communicable to [person/animal]
用法筆記
Almost always appears with disease nouns (disease, illness, infection). Distinguish from the looser synonym 'contagious', which laypeople use; 'communicable' is the term used in public-health and clinical writing and covers transmission by any route, not only direct contact.