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

By the end of the brief treatment, the device had captured a whopping 253 million copies of the Ebola virus, and the man’s situation quickly turned around. —Elie Dolgin, IEEE Spectrum, 4 June 2026

An outbreak of a rare type of Ebola virus has plagued Congo and Uganda. —ABC News, 3 June 2026

The World Health Organization declared an outbreak of the Ebola virus Bundibugyo in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern on May 17. —Eva Flowe june 3, Charlotte Observer, 3 June 2026

The symptoms are generally similar to those of other Ebola viruses, though experts cannot be entirely sure because only a limited number of cases of this particular strain had been observed before the most recent outbreak. —Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 2 June 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