Ebola virus

noun

: any of several filoviruses (genus Orthoebolavirus and especially O. zairense) of African origin that cause an often fatal hemorrhagic fever

Examples of Ebola virus in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The vaccine is licensed for use against Ebola virus disease caused by the Zaire strain -- a different, more common type of Ebola virus. — Arkansas Online, 20 Sep. 2026

The vaccine is licensed for use against Ebola virus disease caused by the Zaire strain. — Constant Same Bagalwa, Los Angeles Times, 20 Sep. 2026

The vaccine is licensed for use against Ebola virus disease caused by the Zaire strain — a different, more common type of Ebola virus. — ABC News, 19 Sep. 2026

That study, being conducted by DRC and Doctors Without Borders, will give participants a shot of Ervebo, followed a month later by a shot of an experimental vaccine designed to protect against the Sudan version of the Ebola virus. — Helen Branswell, STAT, 16 Sep. 2026

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 filoviruses (genus Orthoebolavirus and especially O. zairense) of African origin that cause an often fatal hemorrhagic fever