transmissible
/trænz'misəbl/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Capable of being passed from one person, organism, or thing to another: Describes something, such as a disease, trait, or information, that can be transmitted or transferred.
- Inheritable according to established rules: Describes properties, rights, or characteristics that can be legally or biologically passed down from one generation to the next.
Examples of Usage
- Adjective:
- The virus is highly transmissible through the air. (The virus can easily be passed from one person to another through the air.)
- Certain genetic disorders are transmissible from parent to child. (Some genetic disorders can be inherited by children from their parents.)
- Knowledge is a transmissible asset within a culture. (Knowledge is something that can be passed on within a culture.)
Advanced Usage
- In a legal or hereditary context: Used to describe property, titles, or rights that can be transferred to an heir.
- The title of nobility was transmissible only to the eldest son. (The noble title could only be passed down to the oldest son.)
- In epidemiology: A core term describing the ease with which a pathogen spreads.
- Scientists study the factors that make a new strain more transmissible. (Scientists research what causes a new strain of a virus to spread more easily.)
Variants and Related Words
- Transmit (verb): To send, pass, or transfer from one person or place to another.
- Mosquitoes can transmit malaria.
- Transmission (noun): The act or process of transmitting something.
- The transmission of data occurs almost instantly.
- Nontransmissible (adj.): Not capable of being transmitted.
- Some illnesses are nontransmissible between species.
Synonyms
- Communicable: Often used specifically for diseases that can be spread.
- Contagious: Typically describes diseases spread by direct or indirect contact.
- Infectious: Caused by an organism (like a bacteria or virus) that can invade a host.
- Heritable: Capable of being inherited genetically.
- Transferable: Capable of being moved or conveyed from one place or person to another.
Related Phrases
- Transmissible disease: A disease that can be spread from one host to another.
- Public health measures aim to control transmissible diseases.
- Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE): A family of rare brain disorders, like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, that are transmissible.
- Mad cow disease is a well-known transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.
Notes on Meaning
- While transmissible, contagious, and infectious are often used interchangeably regarding diseases, there are nuances:
- Transmissible is the broadest term, covering any method of transfer (genetic, infectious, etc.).
- Contagious usually implies spread by direct or close contact.
- Infectious specifically refers to diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms.
Adjective
- inherited or inheritable by established rules (usually legal rules) of descent
- ancestral home
- ancestral lore
- hereditary monarchy
- patrimonial estate
- transmissible tradition
- occurring among members of a family usually by heredity
- an inherited disease
- familial traits
- genetically transmitted features
- (of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection