Ebola virus

noun

: any of several filoviruses (genus Ebolavirus and especially species Zaire ebolavirus) of African origin that cause an often fatal hemorrhagic fever

Examples of Ebola virus in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

An emergency operations center funded by American aid to fight polio helped avert disaster in 2014, when the Ebola virus nearly spread to the densely populated streets of Lagos, Nigeria. —Thomas J. Bollyky, Foreign Affairs, 24 Mar. 2025

The department has come under criticism for making unintentional cuts to important policy areas, such as initiatives countering the spread of the Ebola virus. —Hannah Parry, Newsweek, 19 Mar. 2025

The current list includes things like anthrax and Ebola virus. —Ars Technica, 19 Mar. 2025

Lassa fever is a viral disease similar to the Ebola virus. —Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

from the Ebola River in the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire)

Note: According to Peter Piot, a Belgian member of an international commission formed to investigate the first outbreak of the virus in 1976, the name was chosen by members of the commission (including the French physician Pierre Sureau and the Americans Karl Johnson and Joel Breman) from a map of Zaire at the Fonds Médical Tropical, a non-governmental organization in Kinshasa where the members were lodged. Though the Ebola River (a headwater stream of the Mongala River, a tributary of the Congo) turned out to be a considerable distance from the village of Yambuku where the fever was first observed, the name was nonetheless retained. The name "Yambuku virus" was avoided because of the stigma it would have attached to the village. (See Peter Piot, No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses, W.W. Norton, 2012, pp. 56-57.)

First Known Use

1976, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Ebola virus

• adenovirus
• baculovirus
• coronavirus
• enterovirus
• poliovirus
• antivirus
• herpesvirus
• parvovirus
• reovirus
• retrovirus
• rhinovirus
• rotavirus

Medical Definition

Ebola virus

noun

: any of several single-stranded RNA viruses of the family Filoviridae (especially species Zaire Ebola virus) of African origin that cause an often fatal hemorrhagic fever