communicable

[ kuh-myoo-ni-kuh-buhl ]

adjective

1. capable of being easily communicated or transmitted:

   communicable information; a communicable disease.

2. talkative; communicative.

communicable

/ kəˈmjuːnɪkəbəl /

adjective

1. capable of being communicated
2. (of a disease or its causative agent) capable of being passed on readily

communicable

/ kə-myo̅o̅′nĭ-kə-bəl /

1. Capable of being transmitted from a person or animal to another person or animal, either through direct or indirect transmission, including insect or other vectors. Chickenpox is a communicable disease.

Derived Forms

• comˌmunicaˈbility, noun
• comˈmunicably, adverb

Other Words From

• com·muni·ca·bili·ty com·muni·ca·ble·ness noun
• com·muni·ca·bly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of communicable¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin commūnicābilis, equivalent to commūnicā ( re ) ( communicate ) + -bilis -ble

Example Sentences

With the current even more communicable sub-variants it is likely that nearly all children have already been infected at least once.

From Time

The federal government requires only that donated sperm and eggs be treated like other human tissue and tested for communicable diseases – infectious conditions that spread through viruses, bacteria and other means – but not genetic diseases.

From No Straight News

However, too often we are unable to make productive use of the extra years we have been blessed with due to the fact that old age is associated with a host of non-communicable diseases, general physical frailty, and disability.

From Singularity Hub 

During the war, infections and communicable diseases were rampant among troops, prompting American soldiers to organize and start a health care system.

From Time

A key article in this law gives the president broad authority “to prevent the introduction of epidemic diseases into this country from abroad and to prevent the interstate spread of communicable diseases.”

From Washington Post

Because the music here is so free, so joyous, so relaxed that all its pleasures are instantly communicable.

From The Daily Beast

That said, SARS is much more communicable than Ebola, meaning it is easier to catch.

From The Daily Beast

Hunt said the state is seeking to treat the disease as all other communicable diseases are treated.

From The Daily Beast

“Transnational corporations are major drivers of the global epidemic of NCDs [non-communicable diseases],” said the researchers.

From The Daily Beast

Non-Communicable Diseases, which will attempt to address the latest threat to global health.

From The Daily Beast

It is communicable by inoculation, but it is very doubtful that the disease has been communicated from man to man.

From Project Gutenberg

But the outcome has to be expressed in words if it is to be communicable.

From Project Gutenberg

The moral wisdom of the man is not communicable to women, so far as it partakes of rational wisdom, 168.

From Project Gutenberg

These are the symptoms of blood-poisoning, vividly portrayed; of some contagion, communicable by infection.

From Project Gutenberg

There was a report on the birth-rate, the death-rate, the anomaly-rate, and a breakdown of all reported communicable diseases.

From Project Gutenberg