microbe
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- microbeless adjective
- microbial adjective
- microbian adjective
- microbic adjective
- nonmicrobic adjective
- unmicrobial adjective
- unmicrobic adjective
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Microbe is a somewhat outdated way for scientists to talk about the tiny bugs that cause diseases.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.
Published in Cell Communication and Signaling, the study focuses on Fusobacterium nucleatum, a microbe previously connected to colorectal and other cancers.
From Science Daily • Mar. 19, 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
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
By linking the cell's survival to the production of their target compound, the team was able to trick the microbe into creating xanthommatin.
From Science Daily • Nov. 3, 2025
That seems especially puzzling and self-defeating, since a microbe that kills its host kills itself.
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.
