pathogen
Americannoun
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pathogens
plural
noun
-
An agent that causes infection or disease, especially a microorganism, such as a bacterium or protozoan, or a virus.
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See Note at germ
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of pathogen
Explanation
A pathogen is a tiny living organism, such as a bacterium or virus, that makes people sick. Washing your hands frequently helps you avoid the pathogens that can make you sick. Pathos is the Greek word for disease and -genes means "born of." So, a pathogen is something that causes disease, like a virus like the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. At summer picnics, people are cautious about keeping certain foods like potato salad in coolers with ice — the eggs in such dishes spoil quickly out in the heat, introducing pathogens that can make people sick.
Vocabulary lists containing pathogen
Common Senses: Path ("Feeling")
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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:
Rather than testing whether a person has antibodies against a single pathogen, researchers can examine a much broader immune landscape shaped by previous exposure to viruses, bacteria and other immune targets.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
It was a sick new business model and digital pathogen.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
Salmonella, a bacterial pathogen, is one of the most common causes of food poisoning.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
“If I were a bad actor trying to design a pathogen or something to do harm, I would not use AI,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Most human groups are a scattershot mix of HLA profiles, which means that almost always some people in the group will not get sick when exposed to a particular pathogen.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
C3 drew particular attention because earlier research has suggested that activation of the complement system, a network of proteins that helps defend the body against pathogens, may contribute to chronic inflammation.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
As people move deeper and deeper into ecosystems and territories where few, if any, had lived before, they risk interacting with pathogens that were previously confined.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Instead, genetic studies of archaeological remains from Europe and the Americas have uncovered evidence of multiple treponemal diseases in ancient populations, emphasizing how complex the evolutionary history of these pathogens may be.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
Orders for tests that look for other gastrointestinal pathogens have increased alongside cyclospora.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
The failure of bee colonies was caused by a wide range of factors, including but not limited to pathogens, pests, pesticides, pollutants, habitat loss, climate variability, agricultural production intensification, and crop management practices.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
