microbe
Americannoun
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microbes
plural
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Microbe is a somewhat outdated way for scientists to talk about the tiny bugs that cause diseases.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:
They managed to "tame" the microbe in the laboratory and make it fix N2 at temperatures above 90 °C.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
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
"Wheat gluten and casein are recognized as safe in a way a microbe is not, in a regulatory sense, so this is an easier way to protect public health," Hsiao said.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 7, 2026
By analyzing its antibiotic resistance profile, they discovered that this ancient microbe may help scientists better understand how antibiotic resistance develops and spreads naturally.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 21, 2026
What evolutionary benefit does a microbe derive from making us sick in bizarre ways, like giving us genital sores or diarrhea?
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Modern plastics have introduced an enormous new collection of potential carbon sources into the environment, but many of these materials remain chemically inaccessible to microbes.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
The pink comes from microbes thriving in extremely salty water after the area was cut off from fresh water.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
"Digestion is not just a human process -- it is a collaboration between our bodies and trillions of microbes living in the gut," said Professor Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
This gave gut microbes additional substances to break down, increasing their production of short-chain fatty acids.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
The importance of lethal microbes in human history is well illustrated by Europeans’ conquest and depopulation of the New World.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
