How to Use infect in a Sentence

infect

verb
  • All the computers in the office were infected by the same virus.
  • The virus has infected many people.
  • If you're sick you should stay home to avoid infecting other people in the office.
  • The virus has infected many computers.
  • They were unable to prevent bacteria from infecting the wound.
  • Her enthusiasm has infected everyone.
  • The fungus infects the base of the nail and sometimes the top of the foot.
    — Sarah Bradley, Health, 19 May 2024
  • In this way, the virus can break into healthy cells and infect them.
    — Glenn J Rapsinski, The Conversation, 30 Aug. 2021
  • This link, the Times states, was the one that infected Seaford’s device.
    — Emma Roth, The Verge, 21 Mar. 2023
  • The city had a well, which was infected with E. coli due to hog farming.
    — Grace Noble, Dallas News, 24 July 2023
  • If there are rust spots on the petals, the plant may be infected with Camellia petal blight.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 28 Jan. 2024
  • The the first thing researchers needed to do was make sure the illness would not infect the public.
    — Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 21 Mar. 2022
  • The worry, Bowman said, is that deer could hold the virus and be a source to infect humans in the future.
    — Sean McDonnell, cleveland, 24 Dec. 2021
  • Have the sequences changed so the virus is more likely to infect humans?
    — Maryn McKenna, Wired, 24 Jan. 2022
  • Zeng said that the lab in the city of Wuhan has no virus that can directly infect humans.
    — Fox News, 22 July 2021
  • The virus moved through those gaps to crash the party and infect the Justo family.
    — al, 16 Jan. 2022
  • The virus moved through those gaps to crash the party and infect the Justo family.
    — Kaiser Health News, oregonlive, 17 Jan. 2022
  • What if the nanorobots infect Doc Ock to the point of restoring control over the tentacles?
    — Chris Smith, BGR, 21 Nov. 2021
  • Those first two are cancers in the cells lining the throat and stomach, which EBV can infect.
    — Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 3 Mar. 2022
  • If the spike protein is gummed up by an antibody, the virus can’t infect a cell.
    — Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2022
  • The fungus can infect the bloodstream and even cause death by invading the blood, heart and brain, the agency said.
    — Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2023
  • The iPSCs could be a good way to figure out how the virus infects different cell types.
    — Matt Reynolds, WIRED, 6 Mar. 2024
  • These are a group of viruses that are known to infect bacteria.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 9 Nov. 2023
  • Even in the midst of the sorrow and the heaviness each of them has a sense of humor and is infected with the magic of Ireland.
    — David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Jan. 2024
  • Only the first four are thought to infect humans, according to the CDC.
    — Erin Prater, Fortune, 19 Oct. 2022
  • His weapon of choice is a bioweapon with the ability to infect its victims in a virus-like fashion.
    — Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 22 Nov. 2021
  • The measles virus can stay in the air and infect others for up to two hours after a contagious person has left the room.
    — Discover Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024
  • Dalton would scan for new species of exploitable devices and write code to infect them.
    — Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 14 Nov. 2023
  • The sylvatic plague, first introduced to the United States in the early 1900s, infects ferrets and prairie dogs through fleas.
    — Catherine Reagor, AZCentral.com, 9 July 2025
  • The number of patients infected with measles increased by six over the past two weeks, according to the data updated Monday.
    — Kansas City Star, 7 July 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'infect.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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