How to Use mutate in a Sentence

mutate

verb
Definition of mutatenext
Synonyms for mutatenext
  • Over time, her feelings mutated from hatred into love.
  • That strain—the same that mutated to spread from mink to mink—is present in Asia, too.
    — Annalisa Merelli, Quartz, 1 Mar. 2023
  • The danger is that this gives the virus room to continue to spread and mutate.
    — Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2021
  • Because the more people Covid infects, the more chances the virus has to mutate.
    — Chris Cillizza, CNN, 21 Dec. 2021
  • The internet will evolve or mutate around a need for it.
    — Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 17 Nov. 2022
  • Every new infection is a chance for the virus to grow and mutate.
    — Dr. Genevieve Yang, ABC News, 3 June 2022
  • The virus is mutating now at a more constant rate, akin to the pace of evolution of the flu virus, Dr. Lessler said.
    — Apoorva Mandavilli, New York Times, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Goalies stood up to stop shots, instead of mutating to block them.
    — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2024
  • Rapid tests actually look for a part of the virus that is less likely to mutate and dodge the tests.
    — Akshay Syal, M.d., NBC News, 13 Jan. 2024
  • In a reservoir, the virus can mutate and emerge as different strains.
    — Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Apr. 2022
  • Together, their goal is to mutate all of the animals in the world and take over the Earth as the prominent species.
    — Amanda Luberto, The Arizona Republic, 2 Aug. 2023
  • In plain English that means spots that don’t mutate from variant to variant, so the mabs can still lock on.
    — Josh Fischman, Scientific American, 11 Oct. 2022
  • The second option is for the virus to mutate within a dense group of animals.
    — Evan Bush, NBC News, 11 Feb. 2023
  • For one thing, the virus would have to mutate in a specific way to be able to infect human cells.
    — Karen Kaplan Science and Medicine Editor, Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2021
  • That's who continues to be a host to a virus that will continue to mutate.
    — Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press, 11 Jan. 2022
  • There’s always the potential that the virus will mutate and become more of a risk to humans.
    — Annie Berman, Anchorage Daily News, 14 May 2023
  • There’s no guarantee that the virus will mutate at a predictable rate.
    — Melody Schreiber, The New Republic, 28 Apr. 2021
  • In the memoirs, the Biden code can mutate into a kind of cryptography.
    — Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 13 Dec. 2023
  • Covid cases are again surging around the world, while the virus continues to mutate.
    — Meenakshi Narula Ahamed, CNN, 6 May 2021
  • On the other hand, the virus could mutate to render the vaccines much less effective.
    — Jason Douglas, WSJ, 23 Feb. 2021
  • As the pandemic rages in many parts of the world, India and beyond, the virus will continue to mutate.
    — Jeffrey D. Sachs, CNN, 12 May 2021
  • The genes for the proteins in this pathway are mutated in at least 30% of human cancers.
    — Quanta Magazine, 16 Apr. 2024
  • Like all viruses, H5N1 has the potential to mutate to become more of a threat to humans.
    — Jen Christensen, CNN, 3 Apr. 2024
  • But, doctors warn, the virus continues to mutate and the risk of stillbirth remains.
    — Duaa Eldeib, ProPublica, 4 Aug. 2022
  • If white-tailed deer become a reservoir for the virus, the pathogen could mutate and spread to other animals or back to us.
    — New York Times, 7 Feb. 2022
  • Now there is concern that the virus can mutate in deers and reinfect humans.
    — Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Feb. 2022
  • For one thing, viruses can mutate, which is why a new flu vaccine must be produced each year.
    — Jonah Bader, CNN, 25 Nov. 2022
  • Covid has continued to mutate since its emergence on the global stage more than three years ago.
    — Madison Muller, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Aug. 2023
  • That increases the likelihood the virus could mutate to pass from person to person.
    — Evan Bush, NBC News, 22 Oct. 2024
  • The broader concern is that the virus could mutate into a respiratory virus which would spread more easily from person to person.
    — Benjamin Thorp, NPR, 4 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mutate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: