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inoculum
noun
in·oc·u·lum
i-ˈnä-kyə-ləm
plural inocula
i-ˈnä-kyə-lə
: material used for inoculation
Examples of inoculum in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
On the other hand ... sometimes a massive inoculum can kill an otherwise healthy person.
—Holly Yan, CNN, 12 Apr. 2021
But in the grand scheme of history, it may also be seen as a very costly inoculum against future events.
—Evan Ratliff, Wired, 16 June 2020
The size of the inoculum determines the likelihood and severity of infection in respiratory viral infections.
—WSJ, 31 May 2020
Vaccination with live virus was a tightrope walk: if the amount of viral inoculum in the powder was too great, the child would succumb to a full-fledged version of the disease—a disaster that occurred perhaps one in a hundred times.
—Siddhartha Mukherjee, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2020
Intimate and casual contact with a newborn by infected mother does transmit the inoculum, the droplets exhaled, coughed or sneezed.
—NBC News, 19 Mar. 2020
Good sanitation involves removal of all tomato plant parts at the end of the growing season to remove most of the inoculum.
—Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 8 June 2018
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inoculum.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
New Latin, from Latin inoculare
First Known Use
1902, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near inoculum
Cite this Entry
“Inoculum.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inoculum. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.
Medical Definition
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