mutate

Because it protrudes at a slight angle, swells approaching from the south or southwest bounce off the jetty and mutate into triangular peaks—hence the spot’s name.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

Genes can be expressed or activated, or not—more often they’re not; they mutate and can alter their own function and be altered by environmental forces.

From Slate ● Mar. 19, 2026

Most efforts to create broader vaccines have aimed to protect against an entire viral family, such as all coronaviruses or all influenza strains, by targeting viral components that mutate less frequently.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026

This gave H3N2 another chance to mutate, which is natural for viruses, and so it did.

From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2026

“Cells mutate all the time. It’s not as unusual as they’d have you believe in the movies.”

From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste

“It’s a virus that mutates and against which people must be immunized over and over again.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

Most of the time the virus drifts along making minor changes and then every so often there is a sudden abrupt shift as the virus mutates substantially.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025

Bird flu has already cost America billions — and if it mutates to allow for human-to-human transmission, the cost could soar into the hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars.

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2025

Rasmussen said the worry now is that if H5N1 mutates to become transmissible between people, it’ll be young children as well as the old and compromised who are likely to be most affected.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025

It mutates even in the course of one infection, and a person who dies of hiv is usually infected with multiple strains, which have all arisen spontaneously as mutants in the body.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Even the endings feel like save points, with Alice respawning at the start of each consecutive movie with another mutated monkey on her back.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

A patient’s tumor is surgically removed and then sequenced, allowing researchers to figure out which mutated proteins are expressed on the cancer cells.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

Flu hit early last winter, with a new mutated version of the virus circulating - a seasonal influenza called subclade K or Super-K.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

In the early 1980s, scientists identified a small number of mutated genes that drove most human cancers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

His nose and mouth had mutated into a snout filled with yellow fangs.

From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda

Successive governments have attempted to ban such groups, yet the problem has persisted with gangs mutating, rebranding and reappearing under new names each electoral cycle.

From BBC ● May 3, 2026

Mourning is ever-developing and growing and changing and mutating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

The Board of Peace is mutating into something like a low-rent version of the U.N.

From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2026

Nearby, Yang Bao’s “Hyperspace,” a gold, mirrored pyramid accompanied by gleaming shards, nestled in a former lavender field, shimmers amid thyme, gingko, California poppies and native grasses, accompanied by haunting, and constantly mutating, music.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2025

Ernie glared back in the mirror, picking at his face, a big pimple in the middle of his forehead like he was mutating into a unicorn.

From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds