"fomite" meaning in English

See fomite in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈfəʊmʌɪt/ [UK], /ˈfoʊmaɪt/ [US] Forms: fomites [plural]
Etymology: A back-formation from fomites, plural of fomes, a borrowing of medical Latin fōmes (“tinder, kindling”), used figuratively to evoke the analogy of a spreading infection to a spreading fire. Etymology templates: {{root|en|ine-pro|*dʰegʷʰ-}}, {{m|en|fomites}} fomites, {{m|en|fomes}} fomes, {{bor|en|la|fōmes||tinder, kindling}} Latin fōmes (“tinder, kindling”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} fomite (plural fomites)
  1. (medicine) An inanimate object capable of carrying infectious agents (such as bacteria, viruses or prions), and thus passively enabling their transmission between hosts; common examples include towels, dishcloths, kitchenware/flatware, and laundry. Wikipedia link: fomite Categories (topical): Epidemiology, Medicine Synonyms: fomes [archaic] Translations (inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents): 傳染物 (Chinese Mandarin), 传染物 (chuánrǎnwù) (Chinese Mandarin), 媒介物 (méijièwù) (Chinese Mandarin), 病媒 (bìngméi) (Chinese Mandarin), fomiitti (Finnish), vecteur passif [masculine] (French), fomite [masculine] (French), Fomite [masculine] (German), Infektionsträger [masculine] (German), fomite [masculine] (Italian), 媒介物 (baikaibutsu) (alt: ばいかいぶつ) (Japanese), fómite [Portugal, masculine] (Portuguese), fômite [Brazil, masculine] (Portuguese), возбуди́тель (vozbudítelʹ) [masculine] (Russian), перено́счик (perenósčik) [masculine] (Russian), посре́дник (posrédnik) [masculine] (Russian), фомиты (fomity) [plural] (Russian), fómite [masculine] (Spanish)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for fomite meaning in English (6.5kB)

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          "ref": "1859, Richard Francis Burton, “The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa...”, in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, number 29, page 134",
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          "text": "Alternatively, such fluids may be transferred from soiled hands to fomites, or airborne organisms may impinge or settle onto fomite surfaces. Fomites may also serve as a site for the replication of a pathogen, as in the case of enteric bacteria in household sponges or dishcloths.",
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      ],
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          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
          "word": "傳染物"
        },
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          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
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          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
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          "word": "媒介物"
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          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
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          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
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          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Fomite"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
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          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "fomite"
        },
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          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
          "word": "媒介物"
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          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "возбуди́тель"
        },
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          "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
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          ],
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          ],
          "word": "фомиты"
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          "code": "es",
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            "masculine"
          ],
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        }
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      "ipa": "/ˈfoʊmaɪt/",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "fomite"
}
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      ],
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      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "word": "傳染物"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "chuánrǎnwù",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
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    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
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      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "word": "媒介物"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "bìngméi",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "word": "病媒"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "word": "fomiitti"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "vecteur passif"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "fomite"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Fomite"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
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      ],
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      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "fomite"
    },
    {
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      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "word": "媒介物"
    },
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      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
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        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "fómite"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "Brazil",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "fômite"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vozbudítelʹ",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "возбуди́тель"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "perenósčik",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "перено́счик"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "posrédnik",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "посре́дник"
    },
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      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "fomity",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "word": "фомиты"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "inanimate object capable of transferring infectious agents",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "fómite"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fomite"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (4d5d0bb and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.