fomite
UK/ˈfəʊmʌɪt/US/ˈfoʊmaɪt/
fomite noun: 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.
Noun
fomite (plural fomites)
- 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.
- This must be an efficacious fomite of cutaneous and pectoral disease.1859, Richard Francis Burton, “The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa...”, in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, number 29, page 134
- 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.2009, Raina M. Maier et al., Environmental Microbiology, page 559
- Synonyms:
- fomes
fomite meaning in Tamil
fomite in Tamil
- அதிநுண்ணுயிர், தொடுவம், நுண்ணுயிர் பரப்புப் பொருள், தொடு பொருள்
Synonyms of fomite
Forms of fomite
| plural | fomites |
|---|
Origin of fomite
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.
Words that rhyme with fomite
Questions about fomite
- What does fomite mean?
- Fomite means 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.
- What is fomite in Tamil?
- Fomite in Tamil is அதிநுண்ணுயிர், தொடுவம், நுண்ணுயிர் பரப்புப் பொருள். See Fomite meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is fomite?
- Fomite is a noun.
- How do you pronounce fomite?
- Fomite is pronounced /ˈfəʊmʌɪt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of fomite?
- The plural of fomite is fomites.
Words near fomite in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fomite (page history and authors); fomite (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “fomite.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fomite. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.