as in malicious
having or showing a desire to cause someone pain or suffering for the sheer enjoyment of it
the virulent look on her face warned me that she was about to say something unkind
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Recent Examples of virulent
His virulent material once led to a ban on almost every social media platform.
—
Sana Noor Haq, CNN Money, 10 Apr. 2025
People who were paying close attention to certain corners of the internet saw this reality coming more than a decade ago in Gamergate, in which an angry online mob waged a virulent harassment campaign against women and diversity in the video game industry.
—Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 23 Mar. 2025
And in the early 20th century, a fungal pathogen arrived imported on trees from China that proved to be incredibly virulent and incredibly deadly to American chestnuts.
—Ari Daniel, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Mar. 2025
Moreover, letting the virus spread uncontrollably in thousands or even millions of birds gives the virus countless opportunities to evolve and become more virulent.
—Ars Technica, 19 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for virulent
Sana Noor Haq, CNN Money, 10 Apr. 2025
People who were paying close attention to certain corners of the internet saw this reality coming more than a decade ago in Gamergate, in which an angry online mob waged a virulent harassment campaign against women and diversity in the video game industry.
—Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 23 Mar. 2025
And in the early 20th century, a fungal pathogen arrived imported on trees from China that proved to be incredibly virulent and incredibly deadly to American chestnuts.
—Ari Daniel, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Mar. 2025
Moreover, letting the virus spread uncontrollably in thousands or even millions of birds gives the virus countless opportunities to evolve and become more virulent.
—Ars Technica, 19 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for virulent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for virulent
Adjective
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Enhances visibility and control of network traffic and user activities and detects and blocks malicious activities.—
Mickey Singh,
Forbes.com,
23 May 2025
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The malicious URLs outputted in the response are in clickable form, meaning all a user has to do is click one to be taken to a malicious site.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
23 May 2025
Adjective
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The original 2006 film, which was adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s book of the same name, starred Meryl Streep as the powerful Miranda Priestley, Anne Hathaway as fashion newbie Andy Sachs, Emily Blunt as vicious assistant Emily and Stanley Tucci as Miranda’s right hand man Nigel.—
Rachel McRady,
People.com,
23 May 2025
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Noem are working every day to get vicious criminals out of our country while activist judges are fighting to bring them back onto American soil.—
Sonam Sheth,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 May 2025
Adjective
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But then perhaps that is her unsatisfying but depressingly undeniable point: there is no challenging minds this small, behaviors this cruel, spirits this mean.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
30 May 2025
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The reason Evin is infamous is because of its terribly cruel high security detention centers that are poorly supervised by the Prison Chief.—
Jeff Kaufman,
Time,
30 May 2025
Adjective
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Of note: Your Content must not be false, defamatory, misleading or hateful, or infringe any copyright or any other third-party rights or otherwise be unlawful.—
Will Matsuda,
New York Times,
23 May 2025
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Alpine Formula 1 driver Franco Colapinto has taken a strong stance against some of his fans who have shared hateful messages against Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda after an on-track incident in Imola on Friday.—
Lydia Mee,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 May 2025
Adjective
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Well, as referenced above, the United States was coming out of a nasty recession tied to the crisis in the mortgage market.—
Ken Roberts,
Forbes.com,
31 May 2025
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Depending on a team to string together hits — or even contact — to score multiple runs in an inning against pitchers with nasty stuff is a hard way to win.—
Ralph D. Russo,
New York Times,
30 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Virulent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/virulent. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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