filarial

From filaria +‎ -al.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɛːɹɪəl/

  Rhymes: -ɛəriəl

filarial (not comparable)

1. (medicine) Of or pertaining to the microscopic parasitic worms known as filaria, or an infestation thereof.
   • 1914, Edward Rhodes Stitt, The Diagnostics and Treatment of Tropical Diseases , page 266:

     The knowledge of a filarial infection of the region of the eye seems to date from the time of Magellan.

   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin 2006, p. 297:

     From a cosmetic standpoint, the filarial diseases [...] were especially unfortunate.

   • 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society 2016, p. 18:

     Other helminths or wormlike fellow travellers became common in the human gut, including the Enterobius (pinworm or threadworm), the yards-long tapeworm, and the filarial worms which cause elephantiasis and African river blindness.

2. Straight, as if in a line.

   the filarial flight of birds

• microfilarial

filarial m or f (plural filariais, comparable)

1. (medicine) filarial (pertaining to filaria)