Immune Meaning
/ɪˈmjuːn/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjExempt; not subject to.
adjProtected by inoculation, or due to innate resistance to pathogens.
Sentence Examples
The athlete seemed immune to fatigue.
All our children are immune to measles.
Adults are often immune to German measles.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After receiving the vaccine, the child became ____ to the dangerous virus.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Some people seem to be naturally ____ to the common cold and never seem to get sick at all.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *mey- Proto-Indo-European *moy-nósder. Proto-Italic *moinos Latin mūnus Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in- Latin -is Latin in- -is Latin immūnisder. Middle French immunbor. Middle English English immune From Middle English, from Middle French immun, from Latin immūnis (“exempt from public service”), from in- (“not”) + mūnus (“service”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"He had always been remarkably immune from such little ailments, and had only once in his life been ill, of a vicious pneumonia long ago at school. He hadn't the faintest idea what to with a cold in the head, he just took quinine and continued to blow his nose."
— 1922, Michael Arlen, “2/9/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
"Bret Stephens believed that, by virtue of his comfortable position at the New York Times, he ought to be immune from insult or criticism."
— 2019 September 3, David Karpf, “Bret Stephens Compared Me to a Nazi Propagandist in the New York Times. It Proved My Point.”, in Esquire:
"[...] most of the original electrical signalling equipment has had to be replaced by apparatus immune to 50-cycle currents."
— 1959 June, “The opening of the Colchester-Walton-Clacton electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 306:
"Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction."
— 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
"Susceptibles effectively exposed to cases become cases in the next time period; cases recovering from the infection accumulate as immunes."
— 1965, Rene J. Dubos, James G. Hirsch, editors, Bacterial and Mycotic Infections of Man, page 742:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After receiving the vaccine, the child became ____ to the dangerous virus.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Some people seem to be naturally ____ to the common cold and never seem to get sick at all.