What does pathogenicity mean?
Pathogenicity is the capacity of an infectious agent or other biological factor to cause disease in a host. A bacterium, virus, parasite, or fungus may possess varying degrees of pathogenicity, and the term is especially important in public health, epidemiology, and microbiology. The concept differs from virulence: pathogenicity concerns whether an agent can cause disease at all, while virulence concerns the severity of the disease, including the harm it does after infection. Pathogenicity can also depend on the host. The same organism may cause illness in one person but not another because of differences in immunity, health, age, or other susceptibility factors. For this reason, assessments of pathogenicity generally consider the agent, the host, and the circumstances of exposure. The word is a specialized noun derived from the adjective pathogenic and is especially common in scientific and clinical discussion.
nounThe capacity of an infectious agent or other biological factor to cause disease in a host. It refers to the ability to produce disease, rather than the severity of the disease once it occurs.
- The inherent capacity of an infectious agent, such as a bacterium, virus, parasite, or fungus, to cause disease in a susceptible host.
"Public-health officials assessed the pathogenicity of the newly identified virus before issuing guidance."
"The bacterium's pathogenicity varies depending on the immune status of the host."
"Researchers used genetic analysis to determine whether the mutation affected the virus's pathogenicity in animals."
The regular plural is grammatical, although singular usage is much more common.
"The researchers compared the pathogenicities of the two closely related strains."
Pathogenicity asks whether a pathogen can make you ill; virulence asks how badly it can make you ill.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does pathogenicity come from?
Pathogenicity is formed from pathogenic together with the noun-forming suffix -ity. The adjective pathogenic comes through Latin from Greek pathogenēs, a compound associated with pathos, meaning suffering or disease, and a suffix meaning producing or generating. The same Greek foundation also underlies pathogen, pathogenesis, and pathology, all of which concern the production or study of disease.
Related word forms
How pathogenicity is actually used
This is a technical term used chiefly in medicine, microbiology, epidemiology, and related biological sciences. It is frequently discussed alongside virulence, but the two terms describe different properties.
Easily confused with pathogenicity
Pathogenicity is the capacity of an agent to cause disease, whereas virulence describes how severe or damaging the resulting disease is.