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
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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Fast Food Nation
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The Martian
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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:
Many African nations have also drawn lessons from Covid, as the race to find a vaccine proved the value of pathogen data but left the continent struggling to get doses for its people.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
"A future in which pathogen samples and information move quickly, without needless delay; and in which the benefits that come from them reach the people who need them most, fairly and in time."
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
She knew the risks of forgoing pasteurization, but the site eased her concerns: It said the farm tested its milk and had never found a single pathogen.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
To investigate how the body manages cytokine levels, the researchers used a mouse model of systemic inflammation caused by the pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
For practical purposes, the fact that feeding is interrupted promptly is of course an enormous advantage, for crop damage stops almost as soon as the pathogen is applied.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
“Cyclospora is one of the most notoriously difficult pathogens to detect in agricultural matrices.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
FoodNet used to monitor and track Cyclospora and other pathogens, like Listeria.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
FoodNet scaled back monitoring for all but two pathogens last year.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
As models become more capable, the barrier to engineering dangerous pathogens drops.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 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.
