Capable of producing disease or damage to cells; describes agents like viruses or bacteria that cause visible harm to cell structure.
From Greek 'kytos' (cell) + 'pathos' (disease) + 'genic' (producing/generating). This combines the concept of disease-causing with cell damage into one term.
The difference between 'cytopathic' and 'cytopathogenic' is subtle but important: cytopathic describes the damage you see, while cytopathogenic means something has the ability to cause that damage—it's about potential versus observation.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.