Phrase guide

herd immunity

noun · 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

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈhəːd ɪˈmjuːnɪti/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈhɚd ɪˈmjunəti/
  • General-American: [-ɾi]

1

noun

Meaning 1

The indirect protection against the spread of a contagious disease in a given population caused by the immunity of a significant proportion of the population to that particular disease; the immunity may have been obtained through having survived the infection or through vaccination.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: epidemiology, medicine, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From herd + immunity, first identified in herds of cattle.

Across languages

Translations

52 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: مناعة القطيع — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Azerbaijani: sürü immuniteti — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Basque: immunitate kolektiboa — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Basque: talde immunitate — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Bulgarian: обществен имунитет (obštestven imunitet) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Catalan: immunitat de grup — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Chinese Mandarin: 群體免疫 /群体免疫 (qúntǐ miǎnyì) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Czech: kolektivní imunita — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Danish: flokimmunitet — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Dutch: groepsimmuniteit — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Estonian: kollektiivne immuunsus — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Finnish: laumasuoja — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • French: immunité grégaire — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Galician: inmunidade de grupo — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Georgian: ჯოგური იმუნიტეტი (ǯoguri imuniṭeṭi) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Georgian: კოლექტიური იმუნიტეტი (ḳolekṭiuri imuniṭeṭi) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • German: Herdenimmunität — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Greek: ανοσία αγέλης (anosía agélis) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Hebrew: חסינות העדר — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Hungarian: nyájimmunitás — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Hungarian: közösségi immunitás — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Icelandic: hjarðónæmi — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Indonesian: kekebalan kawanan — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Indonesian: kekebalan kelompok — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Irish: imdhíonacht tréada — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Italian: immunità di gregge — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Japanese: 集団免疫 — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Kazakh: табын иммунитеті (tabyn immunitetı) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Korean: 집단 면역 (jipdan myeonyeok) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Macedonian: колективен имунитет (kolektiven imunitet) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Malay: keimunan kelompok — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Norwegian Bokmål: flokkimmunitet — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: flokkimmunitet — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Papiamentu: imunidat di grupo — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Papiamentu: imunidat kolectivo — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Persian: ایمنی جمعی — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Polish: odporność stadna — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Polish: odporność zbiorowiskowa — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Portuguese: efeito rebanho — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Portuguese: imunidade de grupo — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Romanian: imunitate de turmă — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Russian: популяционный иммунитет (populjacionnyj immunitet) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Russian: коллекти́вный иммуните́т (kollektívnyj immunitét) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Serbo-Croatian: imunost krda — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Spanish: inmunidad colectiva — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Spanish: inmunidad de grupo — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Swedish: flockimmunitet — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Thai: ภูมิคุ้มกันหมู่ (puum-kúm-gan-mùu) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Turkish: sürü bağışıklığı — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Ukrainian: колективний імунітет (kolektyvnyj imunitet) — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Vietnamese: miễn dịch cộng đồng — form of indirect protection against a disease
  • Welsh: imiwnedd cenfaint — form of indirect protection against a disease