microbe B2 Topic:Describing Qualities US /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/ UK /ˈmaɪkɹəʊb/ See IPA manual Freq #36986 Meanings 1 noun A tiny living thing too small to see without a microscope, such as a bacterium that can cause disease. Washing your hands helps remove harmful microbes. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · a tiny living thing too... germbug Word family Forms microbes Etymology AI details From French microbe, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) and βίος (bíos, “life”). By surface analysis, micro- + -obe. microbe French μικρός Ancient Greek View etymology graph -> Topics Describing Qualities External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # microbe **Type:** Word **Level:** B2 **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈmaɪkɹəʊb/ **Frequency rank:** 36986 ## Meanings 1. A tiny living thing too small to see without a microscope, such as a bacterium that can cause disease. ## Examples - Washing your hands helps remove harmful microbes. ## Roots and Affixes - Root: microbe - Root: μικρός - Affix: micro- - small ## Etymology From French microbe, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) and βίος (bíos, “life”). By surface analysis, micro- + -obe. ## AI Etymology Microbe comes from French microbe, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) and βίος (bíos, “life”). By surface analysis, micro- + -obe. In present-day English it covers a tiny living thing too small to see without a microscope, such as a bacterium that can cause disease. The historical chain runs through microbe (French) and μικρός (Ancient Greek). ## Topics - Describing Qualities markdown