Phrase guide

go viral

verb · 1 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

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To be rapidly and frequently shared, especially through social media, but (with retroactive application to pre-internet occurrences) also via gossip or as a collective response to broadcasting or widespread print circulation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, sciences, social-science, sociology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

The sociologic phenomenon was named thus because it is analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, with exponential potential. This phrasal verb developed in the late 20th or early 21st century as a name for a phenomenon that has existed since humans became capable of exposing one another to ideas in highly contagious ways; thus, gossip and rumor in close-quartered populations, print circulation, and broadcasting were all enough to produce it, but the advent of the internet, and more specifically the web era and smartphone era, provided many new instances and the occasion to bestow a name on the theme. See also meme, a word coined in 1976 for a phenomenon as old as human interaction.

Across languages

Translations

21 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: viralitzar-se — to be rapidly shared
  • Chinese Mandarin: 爆紅 /爆红 (bàohóng) — to be rapidly shared
  • Dutch: viraal gaan — to be rapidly shared
  • Dutch: viral gaan — to be rapidly shared
  • Finnish: levitä — to be rapidly shared
  • Finnish: levitä netissä — to be rapidly shared
  • French: viraliser — to be rapidly shared
  • Galician: viralizarse — to be rapidly shared
  • German: viral gehen — to be rapidly shared
  • German: viral werden — to be rapidly shared
  • Italian: viralizzare — to be rapidly shared
  • Malay: menular — to be rapidly shared
  • Portuguese: viralizar — to be rapidly shared
  • Romanian: deveni viral — to be rapidly shared
  • Russian: вируси́ться (virusítʹsja) — to be rapidly shared
  • Russian: завируси́ться (zavirusítʹsja) — to be rapidly shared
  • Spanish: viralizarse — to be rapidly shared
  • Spanish: volverse viral — to be rapidly shared
  • Spanish: hacerse viral — to be rapidly shared
  • Ukrainian: віруси́тися (virusýtysja) — to be rapidly shared
  • Ukrainian: завіруси́тися (zavirusýtysja) — to be rapidly shared