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Microbe is a somewhat outdated way for scientists to talk about the tiny bugs that cause diseases.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:
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
Previous work has shown that the hardy microbe can withstand radiation and desiccation, making it a candidate for interplanetary survival.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2026
Scientists believe additional gene microbe links likely exist, but proving them is difficult because genetic and environmental factors overlap in everyday life.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 23, 2025
When these social effects were added to a statistical model, the overall genetic influence on the three newly identified gene microbe links increased by four to eight times.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 23, 2025
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
Prif increased the amount of dietary protein that reached gut microbes, giving them more material to produce the beneficial phenols.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Scientists have long known that dietary fiber contributes to these benefits because gut microbes help break it down.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
But those strategies may need to be reconsidered if mammalian metabolism, rather than microbes, is responsible for much of what circulates in the body.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
He said it could also add to interest in protecting maerl beds, which were "already of the greatest importance to all of the other plants, animals and microbes in the ecological community that they support".
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Eurasia harbored many domestic animal species and hence developed many such microbes, while the Americas had very few of each.
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.
