microbiology
Americannoun
noun
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Etymology
Origin of microbiology
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How does microbiology compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Microbiology is the study of very small things, both living and nonliving. If you're fascinated by looking at tiny organisms through a microscope, you should take a class in microbiology. If your job involves microbiology, you're probably a microbiologist, a scientist who studies microorganisms and other microscopic things. Notice the prefix micro- in all of those words? It means "extremely small," from the Greek root mikros, "small or slight." Add this to biology, "the science of living things," and you get microbiology. This branch of science involves looking closely at fungi, viruses, parasites, bacteria, and other microbes.
Vocabulary lists containing microbiology
Words to Live By: Bio
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bio
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Microbiology - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"A second individual who was a travelling partner of the confirmed case was confirmed negative" by the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, it said.
From Barron's • May 17, 2026
The patient said "it was like winning the lottery twice", added Myhre, who was also the lead author of a study describing the case in Nature Microbiology.
From Barron's • Apr. 13, 2026
Dr Sarah Hooper, a reader in Microbiology and Infection at the Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences, said a case as severe as Davies' isn't very common.
From BBC • Mar. 28, 2026
The study, published in Microbiology Spectrum, is the first to offer a large-scale genomic analysis of E. coli taken directly from diabetic foot ulcers across multiple regions of the world.
From Science Daily • Jan. 20, 2026
The debacle was no surprise to several of us who had just been in Oxford for a Society of General Microbiology meeting on “The Nature of Viral Multiplication.”
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
