noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A structure similar in appearance to a cell, but only nanometres in size.; Nanoscopic abiotic life, acellular life, or protolife.
2. 2
   A structure similar in appearance to a cell, but only nanometres in size.; A nanoscopic self-replicating structure.
3. 3
   A structure similar in appearance to a cell, but only nanometres in size.; Petrified nanoscopic structure, fossil or pseudofossil.

Etymology

Blend of nano- + microbe; by surface analysis, nano- + -obe. From being nanoscale particles similar to microbes.

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