Antimicrobial

//ˌæn.ti.maɪˈkɹəʊ.bi.əl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An agent (drug or other substance) that destroys microbes (i.e., kills off a population of them).
  2. 2
    an agent (as heat or radiation or a chemical) that destroys microorganisms that might carry disease wordnet
  3. 3
    An agent (drug or other substance) that inhibits the growth of microbes but does not kill their whole population.
  4. 4
    An agent (drug or other substance) that counteracts the pathogenic action of microbes.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Tending to destroy or capable of destroying microbes. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Inhibiting the growth of microbes. not-comparable
  3. 3
    Preventing or counteracting the pathogenic action of microbes. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    capable of destroying or inhibiting the growth of disease-causing microorganisms wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
antacidantibioticantimicrobicantimicrobicantimicrobicantimicrobic

Example

More examples

"Last year, a U.N. report predicted growing antimicrobial resistance could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and trigger a financial crisis."

Etymology

From anti- + microbe + -ial.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.