microbe

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪkɹəʊb/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/, [ˈmʌɪkɹoʊb]
• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɪkɹəʉb/, /ˈmɑɪkɹɐʉb/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪkɹɐʉb/

Noun

microbe (plural microbes)

1. (microbiology) Any microorganism; (loosely, nonscientifically) especially, a harmful bacterium.
   • 2015 March 13, Ben Brumfield, “You may be your germs: Microbe genes slipped into human DNA, study says”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 13 January 2018:

     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.

   • 2019 October 7, Sandee LaMotte, “The germiest place in your home and the best way to combat those microbes”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 9 March 2023:

     Yes, there are microbes everywhere and most are just fine for us, perhaps even beneficial to our microbiomes and immune systems. We don’t care about those.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:microorganism

Derived terms

• antimicrobe
• microbeless
• microbial
• microbian
• microbic
• microbicide
• microbiosis
• microbism
• microbivore
• microbivorous
• mimivirus
• nanobe
• pseudomicrobe
• radiobe
• supermicrobe

Related terms

• microorganism

Descendants

• → Welsh: microb

Translations

microorganism

• Afrikaans: mikrobe
• Albanian: mikrob (sq) m
• Arabic: مِيكْرُوب m (mīkrūb), جُرْثُوم m (jurṯūm)
• Armenian: մանրէ (hy) (manrē), միկրոբ (hy) (mikrob)
• Assamese: অণুজীৱ (onuziw), জীৱাণু (ziwanu)
• Asturian: microbiu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: mikrob (az)
• Belarusian: мікро́б m (mikrób)
• Bengali: জীবাণু (bn) (jibanu)
• Bulgarian: микро́б (bg) m (mikrób)
• Burmese: ပိုး (my) (pui:)
• Catalan: microbi m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 微生物 (zh) (wēishēngwù)

• Czech: mikrob (cs) m
• Danish: mikrobe
• Dutch: microbe (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: mikrobo
• Estonian: mikroob
• Finnish: mikrobi (fi)
• French: microbe (fr) m
• Galician: microbio (gl) m
• Georgian: მიკრობი (ka) (miḳrobi)
• German: Mikrobe (de) f
• Greek: μικροοργανισμός (el) m (mikroorganismós), μικρόβιο (el) n (mikróvio)
• Hebrew: חַידַק (he) m (haydak)
• Hindi: सूक्ष्मजीव (sūkṣmajīv)
• Hungarian: mikroba (hu)
• Icelandic: örvera f
• Ido: mikrobo (io)
• Indonesian: mikrob (id)
• Ingrian: mikroba
• Interlingua: microbio
• Irish: miocrób
• Italian: microbo (it) m, microbio (it) m
• Japanese: 微生物 (ja) (びせいぶつ, biseibutsu)
• Kazakh: микроб (mıykrob)
• Khmer: អតិសុខុមប្រាណ (km) (ʼaʼtesokhomĕəʼpraan), មីក្រុប (miikrop), មេរោគ (mei rook), ក្រមី (km) (krɑməy), ជីវាណូ (ciivaanou), ពីជៈ (piicĕəʼ)
• Korean: 미생물(微生物) (ko) (misaengmul)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: میکرۆب (mîkrob)

  Northern Kurdish: mikrob, mîkrob (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: микроб (mikrob)
• Lao: ຈຸນລະຊີບ (lo) (chun la sīp), ຈຸລິນສີ (chu lin sī), ຈຸລິນທີ (chu lin thī)
• Latin: microbium n
• Latvian: mikrobs m
• Lithuanian: mikrobas m
• Macedonian: микроб m (mikrob)
• Māori: moroiti
• Mongolian: нян (mn) (njan)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mikrobe

• Persian: میکروب (fa) (mikrob)
• Polish: drobnoustrój (pl) m, mikrob (pl) m, mikroorganizm (pl) m, zarazek (pl) m
• Portuguese: micróbio (pt) m
• Romanian: microb (ro) m
• Russian: микро́б (ru) m (mikrób)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мѝкро̄б m

  Latin: mìkrōb (sh) m

• Slovak: mikrób m
• Slovene: mikrob m
• Spanish: microbio (es) m
• Swedish: mikrob (sv) c
• Tagalog: mikrobyo
• Tajik: микроб (mikrob)
• Thai: จุลชีพ (th) (jun-lá-chîip), จุลินทรีย์ (th) (jù-lin-sii)
• Turkish: mikrop (tr)
• Turkmen: mikrob
• Ukrainian: мікро́б m (mikrób)
• Urdu: جَرْثُومَہ m (jarsūmā)
• Uyghur: مىكروپ (mikrop)
• Uzbek: mikrob (uz)
• Vietnamese: vi trùng (vi), vi khuẩn (vi), vi sinh vật (vi) (微生物)
• Volapük: mikröb
• Yiddish: מיקראָב (mikrob)

Anagrams

• Crombie

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French microbe, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) and βίος (bíos, “life”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmiˈkroː.bə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧cro‧be

Noun

microbe f (plural microben or microbes, diminutive microbetje n)

1. (microbiology) microbe

Derived terms

• microbisch

French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) +‎ Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.kʁɔb/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

microbe m (plural microbes)

1. (microbiology) microbe

Descendants

• → English: microbe
  • → Welsh: microb
• → Persian: میکروب (mikrob)
• → Romanian: microb
• → Spanish: microbio
  • → Tagalog: mikrobyo
• → Turkish: mikrop

Further reading

• “microbe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012