Microbe

//ˈmaɪkɹəʊb// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any microorganism; (loosely, nonscientifically) especially, a harmful bacterium.

    "We humans and other complex animals are full of microbes, gajillions of them. People have so many that microbe cells living in our bodies outnumber our own vastly."

  2. 2
    a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
adenovirusaerobeaerobic bacteriaaerobic organismamebicamoeba

Antonyms

All antonyms
macro

Example

More examples

"The man is also a stubborn microbe."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

microscopic creaturesmall animalculesmall creaturesmall organismtiny germtiny organismvirus bacterium

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