Coronavirus (COVID-19) Glossary
A shared language lets us understand each other better and fosters a spirit of cooperation. To that end, here is a glossary of terms that are often used in the coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, to better help you understand the virus, and how it spreads.
We continue to add words and phrases as they come up to keep you up-to-date.
SOURCE: WHO, CDC, NIH, JHSPH, UPenn, British Society for Immunology
Vax is our 2021 Word of the Year. When our lexicographers began digging into our English language corpus data it quickly became apparent that vax was a particularly striking term. A relatively rare word in our corpus until this year, by September it was over 72 times more frequent than at the same time last year.
It has generated numerous derivatives that we are now seeing in a wide range of informal contexts, from vax sites and vax cards to getting vaxxed and being fully vaxxed, no word better captures the atmosphere of the past year than vax.
A
- Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
- Adjuvant
- Adverse Event Following Immunization Surveillance (also known as Vaccine Safety Surveillance)
- Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI)
- Adverse Event Of Special Interest (AESI)
- Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
- Aerosol
- Airborne
- Airborne transmission
- Anaphylaxis
- Antibiotic
- Antibody
- Antibody test
- Antigen
- Antigen test
- Asymptomatic
- Asymptomatic vs. Presymptomatic
C
- Case Fatality Rate (CFR)
- Case investigation
- Clinically Diagnosed
- Clinical Efficacy
- Clinical Trial
- Close Contact
- Cluster
- Cold Chain
- Combination or Combined Vaccine
- Communicable
- Community spread
- Community Spread vs. Transmission
- Confirmed Positive Case
- Congregate Settings
- Contactless
- Contact Tracing
- Containment Area
- Controlled Study
- Convalescent Plasma
- Cordon Sanitaire
- Coronavirus
- COVID-19
- Cytokine Storm
