Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.
  • adjective Having legal immunity.
  • adjective Not affected by a given influence; unresponsive.
  • adjective Of or relating to immunity or an immune response.
  • adjective Having resistance to a specific pathogen.
  • adjective Having or producing sensitized antibodies or lymphocytes that react to specific antigens.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Exempt; specifically, protected by inoculation: as, an immune animal.
  • noun One who is exempt; specifically, one who is protected from a particular disease by inoculation or by a previous attack.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who is immune; esp., a person who is immune from a disease by reason of previous affection with the disease or inoculation.
  • adjective Exempt; protected.
  • adjective (Med.) Protected from disease due to the action of the immune system, especially by having been inoculated against or previously exposed to a disease.
  • adjective (Med.) Of or pertaining to the immune system or the components of the immune system.
  • adjective Not responsive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective usually with "from" Exempt; not subject to
  • adjective medicine, usually with "to" Protected by inoculation, or due to innate resistance to pathogens
  • adjective by extension Not vulnerable
  • adjective medicine Of or pertaining to the immune system
  • noun epidemiology A person who is not susceptible to infection by a particular disease

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (usually followed by `to') not affected by a given influence
  • adjective relating to the condition of immunity
  • adjective secure against
  • adjective relating to or conferring immunity (to disease or infection)
  • noun a person who is immune to a particular infection

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin immūnis; see mei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin immūnis ("exempt from public service"), from in- ("not") + mūnus ("service")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word immune.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.