US /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/ UK /ˈmaɪkɹəʊb/
noun Freq #36986

Meanings

  1. 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

From French microbe, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) and βίος (bíos, “life”). By surface analysis, micro- + -obe.

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