How do you use the word "virulent" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "virulent" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "virulent": One can't discount a global disaster like a virulent plague. Ebola is one of the most virulent viruses known to man.

Virulent Meaning

/ˈvɪɹ(j)ʊl(ə)nt/

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

adjOf animals, plants, or substances: extremely venomous or poisonous.

adjExtremely hostile or malicious; intensely acrimonious.

Sentence Examples

One can't discount a global disaster like a virulent plague.

Ebola is one of the most virulent viruses known to man.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

acid toxic bitter

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The ____ virus spread quickly through the population and caused many deaths.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The patient was treated for a ____ infection that was resistant to many of several common types of antibiotics today.

Word Origin & History

PIE word *wisós From Middle English virulent (“leaking or seeping pus, purulent; (of putrefaction) extremely severe (sense uncertain)”) [and other forms], borrowed from Latin vīrulentus (“poisonous”), from vīrus (“poison; venom; slime, slimy liquid; stinking smell; nasty taste”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“poison; slime; fluidity”)) + -ulentus (suffix meaning ‘abounding in, full of’, forming adjectives). Sense 4 (“of a pathogen: replicating within its host cell, then immediately causing it to undergo lysis”) is derived from French virulent, which was first used in this sense by the French biologist François Jacob (1920–2013) and his co-authors in a 1953 article.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face." — 1963, Margery Allingham, “The Well House”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 105:

"They were targeted by a virulent strain of nativism toward those from Southern and Eastern Europe that was largely about race." — 2025 December 15, Greg Sargent, Inside Stephen Miller’s Dark Plot to Build a MAGA Terror State, The New Republic:

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