rotavirus

noun

ro·​ta·​vi·​rus ˈrō-tə-ˌvī-rəs 

: any of a genus (Rotavirus) of reoviruses that have a three-layered protein capsid with no outer lipid envelope when mature and that include one (species Rotavirus A) causing epidemics of severe and sometimes fatal diarrhea in infants and young children

Examples of rotavirus in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Related article ‘Not just measles’: Whooping cough cases are soaring as vaccine rates decline Offit, who co-invented a rotavirus vaccine and serves on the FDA’s independentpanel of vaccine advisers, said the assertion that those systems are inadequate is false. —Meg Tirrell, CNN Money, 30 Apr. 2025

Secondary lactase deficiency can happen after an infection with rotavirus or giardia. —Amber J. Tresca, Verywell Health, 14 Mar. 2025

This group of viruses includes adenovirus, rotavirus, and hepatitis A virus. —Jack Knudson, Discover Magazine, 13 Mar. 2025

Read: How America’s fire wall against disease starts to fail Paul Offit, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and co-inventor of one of the two rotavirus vaccines available in the U.S., needs only to look at his own family to see the potential consequences. —Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 28 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

New Latin, from Latin rota wheel + New Latin virus

First Known Use

1974, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for rotavirus

• antivirus
• herpesvirus
• parvovirus
• reovirus
• retrovirus
• rhinovirus
• adenovirus
• baculovirus
• coronavirus
• enterovirus
• poliovirus
• cytomegalovirus

Medical Definition

rotavirus

noun

ro·​ta·​vi·​rus ˈrōt-ə-ˌvī-rəs 

1

capitalized : a genus of reoviruses that are causative agents of gastroenteritis and that include one (species Rotavirus A) causing epidemics of severe and sometimes fatal diarrhea in infants and young children

Note: Viruses of the genus Rotavirus have a virion with a three-layered protein capsid lacking an outer lipid envelope when mature and a core of 11 discrete segments of double-stranded RNA.

2

: any virus of the genus Rotavirus

rotaviral

-rəl 

adjective