Microbiome
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The genetic information (genomes) of a microbiota.
"The human microbiota consists of the 10-100 trillion symbiotic microbial cells harbored by each person, primarily bacteria in the gut; the human microbiome consists of the genes these cells harbor."
- 2 A microbial biome, such as the community of microbes within the human gut.
"Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism."
Example
More examples"Some doctors recommend taking probiotics in order to restore the gut microbiome."
Etymology
From micro- + biome or blend of microbiota + genome.
More for "microbiome"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.