How to Use virulent in a Sentence

virulent

adjective
Definition of virulentnext
Synonyms for virulentnext
  • The country seemed to be returning to the virulent nationalism of its past.
  • By then we could be faced with more virulent forms of the disease swirling around the globe.
    — Zoe Cormier, Scientific American, 20 Jan. 2021
  • But the state quickly lost ground to the virulent delta variant.
    — Joe Mahr, chicagotribune.com, 27 Feb. 2022
  • Much of it is virulent; most of it is never seen by the public.
    — Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 4 Jan. 2021
  • This makes black spot less virulent in the dry summer months.
    — Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Apr. 2023
  • There is no law of nature that says a virus has to evolve to be less virulent, Barry says.
    — Josh Fischman, Scientific American, 4 Mar. 2022
  • The latest outbreak was caused by a virulent form, and all the infections were tied to the same strain: E. coli O157:H7.
    — Gerry Smith and Daniela Sirtori / Bloomberg, TIME, 23 Oct. 2024
  • But their hatred was no less virulent for its being mired in the past.
    — Harper's Magazine, 25 June 2024
  • The coronavirus so far has shown to be less virulent than SARS.
    — Patrick Thomas, WSJ, 29 Jan. 2020
  • If the pathogen is present and virulent but the rose is resistant to the pathogen, disease will not develop.
    — Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Apr. 2023
  • But Delta was about twice as virulent as the initial iteration of the virus.
    — Clayton Dalton, The New Yorker, 21 Jan. 2022
  • But there is no law of nature that says a virus must always evolve to become less virulent.
    — Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, 14 Mar. 2022
  • That genetic effect has raised concerns that the drug could spur more virulent strains of the virus.
    — Matthew Perrone, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Nov. 2021
  • This didn’t work with such a virulent disease that started spreading around the world.
    — Elanah Uretsky, The Conversation, 23 Nov. 2020
  • But the campaign against them was so vicious and virulent they didn’t get elected.
    — Katie Kilkenny, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Mar. 2020
  • One is that the 1918 flu largely disappeared during the summer of that year, but came back in an even more virulent form in the fall.
    — David Meyer, Fortune, 2 Mar. 2020
  • Rain and warm, humid weather in June set a prolonged scene for virulent outbreaks of mildew that some said was the worst in 25 years.
    — Elin McCoy, Fortune Europe, 11 May 2024
  • The House has become its own special petri dish, breeding the most virulent strain of what ails the broader party.
    — Dan Balz, Anchorage Daily News, 5 Jan. 2023
  • In 2015, a virulent avian flu outbreak nearly wiped out his flock.
    — David Klepper, ajc, 17 May 2022
  • The White House has now become a virulent cluster site, the type that scientists love to study to learn more about the way the coronavirus spreads.
    — Washington Post, 8 Oct. 2020
  • The more virulent kind seems to come from the right, which tends to dwell in the more lurid conspiracy theories and more outlandish claims.
    — CBS News, 16 Dec. 2020
  • Having one strain of dengue fever, for instance, doesn’t guarantee that the next one will be less virulent.
    — Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2020
  • Topol fears that a future variant will be more virulent.
    — Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 23 May 2022
  • Omicron was the first version of that, and there is this sort of adage that 'well, over time, viruses evolve to be less virulent,' but that's not really true.
    — Compiled Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 21 Feb. 2022
  • Omicron was the first version of that, and there is this sort of adage that ‘well, over time, viruses evolve to be less virulent,’ but that’s not really true.
    — Jonathan Mattise, chicagotribune.com, 20 Feb. 2022
  • But then reality, in the form of a deadly, virulent virus spreading across the planet, changed all of our lives in ways both small and large.
    — oregonlive, 8 Apr. 2021
  • Others say it’s too early to tell, and point out that a milder variant next month doesn’t mean a more virulent one couldn’t emerge the following.
    — Erin Prater, Fortune, 21 Aug. 2022
  • Meanwhile, the current outbreak, which began in Congo late last year, is linked to a new, more virulent form of the disease.
    — Sophie Neiman, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Sep. 2024
  • Now, some devils have evolved to resist the virulent cancer.
    — Big Think, 24 June 2024
  • Their virulent strain of hate, deeply rooted in antisemitism, has spread beyond the region and found fertile ground in Western democracies, including the United States.
    — Nina Turner, Newsweek, 30 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'virulent.' 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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