Standard Lemma guide

disinfection

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /dɪsɪnˈfɛkʃən/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛkʃən
  • CMU ARPABET: D IH0 S IH0 N F EH1 K SH AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Treatment with disinfectant materials in order to destroy harmful microorganisms.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

treatment to destroy harmful microorganisms

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: medical care, medical aid

Narrower terms: chlorination

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh1 Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Old French des-bor. ▲ Latin dis-bor. Middle English dis- English dis- English infection English disinfection From dis- + infection.

Across languages

Translations

41 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Azerbaijani: dezinfeksiya — treatment
  • Bulgarian: дезинфекция (dezinfekcija) — treatment
  • Bulgarian: обеззаразяване (obezzarazjavane) — treatment
  • Catalan: desinfecció — treatment
  • Chinese Mandarin: 消毒 (xiāodú) — treatment
  • Czech: dezinfekce — treatment
  • Danish: desinfektion — treatment
  • Danish: desinficering — treatment
  • Finnish: desinfiointi — treatment
  • French: désinfection — treatment
  • Galician: desinfección — treatment
  • German: Desinfektion — treatment
  • German: Desinfizierung — treatment
  • Greek: απολύμανση (apolýmansi) — treatment
  • Hungarian: fertőtlenítés — treatment
  • Indonesian: desinfeksi — treatment
  • Italian: disinfezione — treatment
  • Japanese: 消毒 (shōdoku) — treatment
  • Kazakh: жұқпасыздандыру (jūqpasyzdandyru) — treatment
  • Korean: 소독 (sodok) — treatment
  • Malay: penyahjangkitan — treatment
  • Malay: disinfeksi — treatment
  • Malay: pembasmian kuman — treatment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: desinfeksjon — treatment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: desinfisering — treatment
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: desinfeksjon — treatment
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: desinfisering — treatment
  • Occitan: desinfeccion — treatment
  • Polish: dezynfekcja — treatment
  • Portuguese: desinfecção — treatment
  • Russian: дезинфе́кция (dezinfékcija) — treatment
  • Russian: обеззара́живание (obezzaráživanije) — treatment
  • Slovak: dezinfekcia — treatment
  • Spanish: desinfección — treatment
  • Swedish: desinfektion — treatment
  • Tagalog: des-impeksiyon — treatment
  • Tagalog: pagdes-impekta — treatment
  • Ukrainian: дезінфе́кція (dezinfékcija) — treatment
  • Ukrainian: знезара́ження (znezarážennja) — treatment
  • Ukrainian: знезара́жування (znezarážuvannja) — treatment
  • Vietnamese: sự tẩy uế — treatment
Real reading context

disinfection in complete knowledge articles