viral
adjective
vi·ral
| \ ˈvī-rəl
\
\
Definition of viral
1
: of, relating to, or caused by a virus
a viral infection
2
: quickly and widely spread or popularized especially by means of social media
a viral video
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Other Words from viral
virally
\ ˈvī-rə-lē
\
adverb
\
adverb
Examples of viral in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Sharks Gone Wild 2 (Discovery at 8) A recap of the year in sharks, from viral moments to advances in science. — Nina Zafar, Washington Post, "What to watch on TV this weekend: ‘Flip it like Disick’ premieres on E!," 2 Aug. 2019 Here are a few more debate highlights and viral moments: - CNN showed noticeable improvement on night 2. — cleveland.com, "Tulsi Gabbard takes on Kamala Harris and other viral moments from CNN’s Democratic debate," 1 Aug. 2019 For the other candidates, the incentives were to attack him, to create a viral moment, to get attention. — Susan Page, USA TODAY, "Analysis: Go easy on him? Sorry, Joe Biden. Not at this debate, or anytime soon.," 1 Aug. 2019 Harris brought the conversation back to what became a viral moment for the California senator in the first debate against Biden: his comments about working with southern Democratic segregationists. — Tara Golshan, Vox, "Barack Obama was Joe Biden’s guardian angel at the Democratic debate," 1 Aug. 2019 Who won the Democratic debate second round was issues; health care took the lead, and race got lots of time, but some viral moments did well too. — Chris Sikich, Indianapolis Star, "Takeaways from Pete Buttigieg's performance in second Democratic debate," 31 July 2019 In the end, however, some in Trump's orbit said Mueller made their job easy by failing to provide the Democrats with a damning viral moment and seeming shaky and halting at times. — Author: Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Anchorage Daily News, "‘A very good day’: Trump and allies claim victory in Mueller’s performance," 25 July 2019 Meanwhile, DaBaby tried to create a viral moment in real time by maneuvering through the crowd to perform in a mosh pit. — Eric Diep, Billboard, "XXL's 2019 Freshman Show: Rico Nasty and Tierra Whack Show Their Star Power in NYC," 23 July 2019 As with the last viral moment, however, users have been surprised to learn that the app’s creators are harvesting metadata from their photos. — Ashley Carman, The Verge, "FaceApp is back and so are privacy concerns," 17 July 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'viral.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for viral
viral
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of viral
: caused by a virus
: spreading very quickly to many people especially through the Internet
See the full definition for viral in the English Language Learners Dictionary
viral
adjective
vi·ral
| \ ˈvī-rəl
\
\
Medical Definition of viral
: of, relating to, or caused by a virus
viral infections
Other Words from viral
virally
\ -rə-lē
\
adverb
\
adverb
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