VIRAL
What does "VIRAL" mean?
Spreading rapidly and widely, like a virus, especially online.
Meanings
- Relating to or caused by a virus. The clinic confirmed it was a viral infection, not bacterial. technical
- Spreading very quickly and widely, especially by being shared on the internet. Her thirty-second clip went viral overnight. informal
Did you know?
- The 'going viral' metaphor was first commercial: 'viral marketing' was coined around 1996 to describe how Hotmail spread by appending a sign-up link to every email a user sent.
Word origin
From Latin 'virus' (poison, slimy liquid) plus '-al'; the 'spreading online' sense emerged in the 1990s by analogy with infectious disease.
Remember it
VIRAL = VIRus + AL; the thing it describes spreads exactly like the word it grew from.
A little poem
One person laughs, and laughter finds a wire;
by dawn the whole world shares the single fire.
couplet
Wordplay
- My post about washing your hands went viral - which felt like the worst possible compliment.
What it teaches
Spreading fast and spreading well are not the same; virality measures reach, never worth.
Quick facts
What does VIRAL mean?
Spreading rapidly and widely, like a virus, especially online.
Is VIRAL a valid word?
Yes — VIRAL is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is VIRAL?
VIRAL has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does VIRAL come from?
From Latin 'virus' (poison, slimy liquid) plus '-al'; the 'spreading online' sense emerged in the 1990s by analogy with infectious disease.
What can VIRAL teach us?
Spreading fast and spreading well are not the same; virality measures reach, never worth.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.