Contagious — A Vocabulary Story
Oliver and the Runaway Yawn
It started during silent reading time, which was the worst possible moment for it to start.
Oliver felt a yawn creeping up his throat like a slow, stretchy monster. He tried to squash it. He pressed his lips together. He puffed out his cheeks. But the yawn escaped anyway — enormous, wide and wobbling.
Across the table, Amara saw it. Her mouth opened into a yawn of her own. Then Tom yawned. Then Jessica. The yawn travelled contagiously along the row, hopping from face to face like a frog on a trampoline.
Contagious means spreading easily from person to person, whether a disease or an emotion.
"Yawns are contagious," whispered Amara, mid-yawn. "Everybody knows that."
By the time the yawn reached Mrs Bello at the front, half the class looked like a choir of sleepy hippos. Mrs Bello caught it too, covering her mouth with her register.
That's when Oliver got the giggles. Watching his teacher yawn behind a register was simply too funny. His shoulders shook. A snort slipped out.
The giggles, it turned out, were even more contagious than the yawn. Amara collapsed onto her book. Tom laughed so hard his chair squeaked. Soon the whole classroom rippled with laughter, spreading contagiously from table to table with nobody able to stop it.
Mrs Bello wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. "Right. Oliver, since your yawns and giggles are clearly contagious, you can pass something useful around instead."
She handed him the stack of spelling books, and Oliver delivered them, still hiccupping with leftover laughter.
Word Definition
contagious
meaning
spreading easily from person to person, whether a disease or an emotion
synonyms
infectious · transmissible · communicable · endemic · spreading
antonyms
noninfectious · harmless · noncatching
example sentence
The flu is highly contagious and can spread quickly in crowded areas.