herd immunity
Syllables: herd im·mun·ity/ˈhəːd ɪˈmjuːnɪti/US/ˈhɚd ɪˈmjunəti/
herd immunity noun: the indirect protection against the spread of a contagious disease in a given population caused by the immunity of a significant proportion of the population to that particular disease; the immunity may have been obtained through having survived the infection or through vaccination.
Noun
herd immunity (countable and uncountable, plural herd immunities)
- The indirect protection against the spread of a contagious disease in a given population caused by the immunity of a significant proportion of the population to that particular disease; the immunity may have been obtained through having survived the infection or through vaccination.
- During the years that the herd was being replenished by purchase abortions were frequent, but that practice was discontinued, and the heifer calves born in the herd have been raised. [...] Thus a herd immunity seems to have developed as a result both of keeping the aborting cows and raising the...1917 January, Adolph Eichhorn, George M. Potter, “Prevention and Treatment”, in Contagious Abortion of Cattle (United States Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; 790), Washington, D.C....
- The Spread of Bacterial Infection. The Problem of Herd-Immunity [title]. [...] Consideration of the results obtained over the last five years, [...] has led us to believe that the question of immunity as an attribute of a herd should be studied as a separate problem, closely related to, but in many...1923 May, W[illiam] W[hiteman] C[arlton] Topley, G[raham] S[elby] Wilson, “The Spread of Bacterial Infection. The Problem of Herd-Immunity.”, in The Journal of Hygiene, volume 21, number 3, London...
- Synonyms:
- community immunity
herd immunity meaning in Tamil, Arabic, Malay and Indonesian
herd immunity in Tamil
- கூட்டெதிர்ப்பு சக்தி, மந்தை நோய் எதிர்ப்புத்திறன்
herd immunity in Arabic
- form of indirect protection against a disease
- مناعة القطيع
herd immunity in Malay
- form of indirect protection against a disease
- keimunan kelompok
herd immunity in Indonesian
- form of indirect protection against a disease
- kekebalan kawanan, kekebalan kelompok
More languagesFewer languages
- herd immunity in Persian
- ایمنی جمعی
- herd immunity in Thai
- ภูมิคุ้มกันหมู่ puum-kúm-gan-mùu
- herd immunity in Vietnamese
- miễn dịch cộng đồng
Examples of herd immunity in a sentence
- After an outbreak, the disease and virus disappeared and the herd immunity gradually waned in the next 2 to 3 years.1995, Luis Enjuanes, Bernard A. M. Van der Zeijst, “Molecular Basis of Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus Epidemiology”, in Stuart...
- For herd immunity to occur, the vaccine must prevent transmission of the virus as well as prevent disease.2006, Warren Levinson, Review of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, 9th edition, New York, N.Y.: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, →ISBN...
- However, their good fortune is probably the result of herd immunity, that is, as long as most dogs are vaccinated, the unvaccinated dogs rarely come in contact with the infectious agents.2007, D. Caroline Coile, “Maintaining Your Pom’s Health and Happiness”, in Pomeranians for Dummies (For Dummies), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley...
- Herd immunity is based on the notion that if a herd (a population or a group) is mostly protected from a disease by immunization then the chance that a major epidemic will occur is limited.2010, Ray M. Merrill, “Practical Disease Concepts in Epidemiology”, in Introduction to Epidemiology, 5th edition, Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and...
Synonyms of herd immunity
Forms of herd immunity
| plural | herd immunities |
|---|
Origin of herd immunity
From herd + immunity, first identified in herds of cattle.
Words formed from herd immunity
- herd immunity threshold
- post-herd-immunity
Questions about herd immunity
- What does herd immunity mean?
- Herd immunity means the indirect protection against the spread of a contagious disease in a given population caused by the immunity of a significant proportion of the population to that particular disease; the immunity may have been obtained through having survived the infection or through vaccination.
- What is herd immunity in Tamil?
- Herd immunity in Tamil is கூட்டெதிர்ப்பு சக்தி, மந்தை நோய் எதிர்ப்புத்திறன். See Herd immunity meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use herd immunity in a sentence?
- After an outbreak, the disease and virus disappeared and the herd immunity gradually waned in the next 2 to 3 years.
- What part of speech is herd immunity?
- Herd immunity is a noun.
- How do you pronounce herd immunity?
- Herd immunity is pronounced /ˈhəːd ɪˈmjuːnɪti/ (UK).
- What is the plural of herd immunity?
- The plural of herd immunity is herd immunities.
Words near herd immunity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: herd immunity (page history and authors); herd immunity (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-herd immunity.wav.
Cite this entry: “herd immunity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/herd_immunity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.