venom

/ˈvɛnəm/

venom noun: an animal toxin intended for defensive or offensive use; a biological poison delivered by bite, sting, etc., to protect an animal or to kill its prey.

Noun

venom (countable and uncountable, plural venoms)

An animal toxin intended for defensive or offensive use; a biological poison delivered by bite, sting, etc., to protect an animal or to kill its prey.
- […] There may be in the cup / A spider steep’d, and one may drink, depart, / And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge / Is not infected...c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- And from the Boughs brush off the evil dew, / And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blew, / Or what the cross dire-looking Planet smites, / Or hurtfull Worm with canker’d venom bites […]1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 54
Synonyms:

venene, venin, atter, zootoxin
(figuratively) Feeling or speech marked by spite or malice; vitriol.
- The venom of such looks, we fairly hope, / Have lost their quality, and that this day / Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- […] as I was feasting my jaundiced eye one morning with a certain newspaper, which I was in the habit of employing as the vehicle of my venom, I was startled at discovering myself conspicuously pointed out in an angry column as a cowardly defamer […]1790, Richard Cumberland, The Observer, volume 5, number 130, London: C. Dilly, page 48

Verb

venom (third-person singular simple present venoms, present participle venoming, simple past and past participle venomed)

(obsolete, transitive) To infect with venom; to envenom; to poison.
- […] washe all the filth away with warme water, and annoynte the place with Hony and Fytch flower myngled together. But beware you touche none of the kirnelles with your bare finger, for feare of venoming the place, which is very apt for a Fistula to breede in.1566, Thomas Blundeville (translator and editor), The Fower Chiefyst Offices Belongyng to Horsemanshippe, London, Chapter 36
- Let’s leave the hermit pity with our mothers, / And when we have our armours buckled on, / The venom’d vengeance ride upon our swords, / Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Adjective

venom (not comparable)

(obsolete) Poisonous, poisoned; (figuratively) pernicious.
- Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud? / Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows’ nests? / Or toads infect fair founts with venom mud?1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC
- […] it is stopp’d with other flattering sounds, / As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond, / Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound / The open ear of youth doth always listen;1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...

venom meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

venom in Hindi

an animal toxin intended for offensive use: ज़हर zahar, विष viṣ

venom in Tamil

an animal toxin intended for offensive use: விஷம் viṣam

venom in Marathi

an animal toxin intended for offensive use: विष viṣ

venom in Urdu

an animal toxin intended for offensive use: زہر zahar

More languagesFewer languages

venom in Bengali: বিষ biś, জহর johor
venom in Telugu: విషము viṣamu
venom in Malayalam: വിഷം viṣaṁ
venom in Kannada: ವಿಷ viṣa
venom in Punjabi: ਜ਼ਹਿਰ zahir
venom in Gujarati: વિષ viṣ
venom in Odia: ବିଷ biṣa
venom in Sanskrit: विष viṣá
venom in Sinhala: විෂ wiṣa
venom in Assamese: বিহ bih
venom in Nepali: जहर jahar, विष viṣ
venom in Pashto: زهر zahr
venom in Tagalog: kamandag
venom in Arabic: سُمّ summ
venom in Malay: bisa
venom in Indonesian: bisa
venom in Persian: زهر zahr
venom in Thai: พิษ pít
venom in Vietnamese: nọc độc, nọc
venom in Myanmar: အဆိပ် a.hcip

Examples of venom in a sentence

I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter XX, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please...
The serious artist […] [is] obsessed by his material; it’s like a venom working in his blood and the art is the antidote.1968 August, Truman Capote, interview, Mademoiselle
Venom evolved from saliva and it's used primarily for catching and digesting prey.2022, Derek Muller, "How Horses Save Humans from Snake Bites", Veritasium, 00:03:20 ff.
My daughter […] has no occasion to dispute the identity of your person; the venom of your present language is sufficient to remind her that she speaks with the mortal enemy of her father.1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XXXIII, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify...

All 40 example sentences with venom

Synonyms of venom

Forms of venom

Noun
plural	venoms
Verb
third-person singular present	venoms
present participle	venoming
past participle	venomed
past	venomed

Plural of venom: venoms

Origin of venom

From Middle English venym, from Old French venim, from Vulgar Latin *venīmen, from Early Medieval Latin venīnum, from Classical Latin venēnum (“drug; poison; a charm”), ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to love”). Doublet of venin and venene.

Phrases with venom

dilute Russell's viper venom times

Words that rhyme with venom

Questions about venom

What does venom mean?: Venom means an animal toxin intended for defensive or offensive use; a biological poison delivered by bite, sting, etc., to protect an animal or to kill its prey.
What is venom in Hindi?: Venom in Hindi is ज़हर (zahar), विष (viṣ). See Venom meaning in Hindi.
How do you use venom in a sentence?: I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.
What part of speech is venom?: Venom can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce venom?: Venom is pronounced /ˈvɛnəm/.
What is the plural of venom?: The plural of venom is venoms.

Words near venom in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: venom (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-venom.ogg.

Cite this entry: “venom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/venom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.