microbe
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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microbelessadjective
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microbialadjective
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microbianadjective
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microbicadjective
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nonmicrobicadjective
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unmicrobialadjective
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unmicrobicadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of microbe
1880–85; < French < Greek mīkro- micro- + bíos life
Explanation
Microbe is a somewhat outdated way for scientists to talk about the tiny bugs that cause diseases. When you get the flu, you can blame a microbe. In the nineteenth century, the idea that germs caused illness was brand new, and doctors referred to both germs and microbes interchangeably. The word microorganism is more scientifically precise, and in fact microbe is a shortened form of that long, Greek-rooted word. Mikro means "small," and in microbe it's combined with bios, or "life."
Vocabulary lists containing microbe
Words to Live By: Bio
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Ecology - Middle School
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Earth Science - Middle 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.
See Examples For:
Like any pandemic, the Black Death was simultaneously a biological and a social event—shaped by both the innate characteristics of a microbe and such all-too-human factors as political systems, religious beliefs and public-health responses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Their findings show that at least one microbe can tolerate ambiguity in its genetic code, overturning a central assumption in biology.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 28, 2026
To explore this idea, the team cultured a large quantity of P. sanguinis for three days and then extracted the full mixture of metabolites produced by the microbe.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 29, 2025
One previous piece of research on Neanderthal DNA also showed that modern humans and Neanderthals shared an oral microbe - a type of bacteria found in our saliva.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
Many of our “symptoms” of disease actually represent ways in which some damned clever microbe modifies our bodies or our behavior such that we become enlisted to spread microbes.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
These results indicate that dissolved organic matter released from marine snow provides a rapid and valuable energy source for microbes living at great depths.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
"These findings are exciting and there is much more potential to expand our knowledge on the diversity and distribution of these unique microbes," he added.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
As that material decomposed, oxygen levels in the sediment decreased, creating favorable conditions for chemosynthetic microbes.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 26, 2026
If sunlight dependent microbes could not have created the structures, what did?
From Science Daily ● Jun. 26, 2026
White blood cells and other cells of ours actively seek out and kill foreign microbes.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
