pathogen
Americannoun
noun
-
An agent that causes infection or disease, especially a microorganism, such as a bacterium or protozoan, or a virus.
-
See Note at germ
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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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Fast Food Nation
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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.
Davji Bhimji Atellah, KMPDU's secretary general, said the union "will not sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen that we did not generate."
From BBC • May 29, 2026
It’s a perennial pathogen, highly contagious and extremely deadly, and its occasional flareups could threaten a global disaster.
From Salon • May 20, 2026
Researchers say this raises the possibility of developing broad spectrum antiviral drugs that could work against an entire family of viruses rather than a single pathogen.
From Science Daily • May 13, 2026
This familiarity stands in stark contrast to SARS-CoV-2, a novel pathogen that wasn’t detected until 2019.
From Barron's • May 11, 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
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.
