Standard Lemma guide

microbe

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmaɪkɹəʊb/
  • General-American: /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/
  • California: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada: /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/
  • Canada: [ˈmʌɪkɹoʊb]
  • Australian: /ˈmɑɪkɹəʉb/
  • Australian: /ˈmɑɪkɹɐʉb/
  • New-Zealand: /ˈmaɪkɹɐʉb/
  • CMU ARPABET: M AY1 K R OW2 B Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, microbiology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bug, germ

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: microorganism, micro-organism

History

Etymology

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

Across languages

Translations

91 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: mikrobe — microorganism
  • Albanian: mikrob — microorganism
  • Arabic: مِيكْرُوب (mīkrūb) — microorganism
  • Arabic: جُرْثُوم (jurṯūm) — microorganism
  • Armenian: մանրէ (manrē) — microorganism
  • Armenian: միկրոբ (mikrob) — microorganism
  • Assamese: অণুজীৱ (onuziw) — microorganism
  • Assamese: জীৱাণু (ziwanu) — microorganism
  • Asturian: microbiu — microorganism
  • Azerbaijani: mikrob — microorganism
  • Belarusian: мікро́б (mikrób) — microorganism
  • Bengali: জীবাণু (jibanu) — microorganism
  • Bulgarian: микро́б (mikrób) — microorganism
  • Burmese: ပိုး (pui:) — microorganism
  • Catalan: microbi — microorganism
  • Chinese Mandarin: 微生物 (wēishēngwù) — microorganism
  • Czech: mikrob — microorganism
  • Danish: mikrobe — microorganism
  • Dutch: microbe — microorganism
  • Esperanto: mikrobo — microorganism
  • Estonian: mikroob — microorganism
  • Finnish: mikrobi — microorganism
  • French: microbe — microorganism
  • Galician: microbio — microorganism
  • Georgian: მიკრობი (miḳrobi) — microorganism
  • German: Mikrobe — microorganism
  • Greek: μικροοργανισμός (mikroorganismós) — microorganism
  • Greek: μικρόβιο (mikróvio) — microorganism
  • Hebrew: חַידַק (haydak) — microorganism
  • Hindi: सूक्ष्मजीव (sūkṣmajīv) — microorganism
  • Hungarian: mikroba — microorganism
  • Icelandic: örvera — microorganism
  • Ido: mikrobo — microorganism
  • Indonesian: mikrob — microorganism
  • Ingrian: mikroba — microorganism
  • Interlingua: microbio — microorganism
  • Irish: miocrób — microorganism
  • Italian: microbo — microorganism
  • Italian: microbio — microorganism
  • Japanese: 微生物 (biseibutsu) — microorganism
  • Kazakh: микроб (mikrob) — microorganism
  • Khmer: អតិសុខុមប្រាណ (ʼaʼtesokhomĕəʼpraan) — microorganism
  • Khmer: មីក្រុប (miikrop) — microorganism
  • Khmer: មេរោគ — microorganism
  • Khmer: ក្រមី (krɑɑməy) — microorganism
  • Khmer: ជីវាណូ (ciivaanou) — microorganism
  • Khmer: ពីជៈ (piicĕəʼ) — microorganism
  • Korean: 미생물 (misaengmul) — microorganism
  • Central Kurdish: میکرۆب (mîkrob) — microorganism
  • Northern Kurdish: mikrob — microorganism
  • Northern Kurdish: mîkrob — microorganism
  • Kyrgyz: микроб (mikrob) — microorganism
  • Lao: ຈຸນລະຊີບ (chun la sīp) — microorganism
  • Lao: ຈຸລິນສີ (chu lin sī) — microorganism
  • Lao: ຈຸລິນທີ (chu lin thī) — microorganism
  • Latin: microbium — microorganism
  • Latvian: mikrobs — microorganism
  • Lithuanian: mikrobas — microorganism
  • Macedonian: микроб (mikrob) — microorganism
  • Māori: moroiti — microorganism
  • Mongolian: нян (njan) — microorganism
  • Norwegian Bokmål: mikrobe — microorganism
  • Persian: میکروب (mikrob) — microorganism
  • Polish: drobnoustrój — microorganism
  • Polish: mikrob — microorganism
  • Polish: mikroorganizm — microorganism
  • Polish: zarazek — microorganism
  • Portuguese: micróbio — microorganism
  • Romanian: microb — microorganism
  • Russian: микро́б (mikrób) — microorganism
  • Serbo-Croatian: мѝкро̄б — microorganism
  • Serbo-Croatian: mìkrōb — microorganism
  • Slovak: mikrób — microorganism
  • Slovene: mikrob — microorganism
  • Spanish: microbio — microorganism
  • Swedish: mikrob — microorganism
  • Tagalog: mikrobyo — microorganism
  • Tajik: микроб (mikrob) — microorganism
  • Thai: จุลชีพ (jun-lá-chîip) — microorganism
  • Thai: จุลินทรีย์ (jù-lin-sii) — microorganism
  • Turkish: mikrop — microorganism
  • Turkmen: mikrob — microorganism
  • Ukrainian: мікро́б (mikrób) — microorganism
  • Urdu: جَرْثُومَہ (jarsūmā) — microorganism
  • Uyghur: مىكروپ (mikrop) — microorganism
  • Uzbek: mikrob — microorganism
  • Vietnamese: vi trùng — microorganism
  • Vietnamese: vi khuẩn — microorganism
  • Vietnamese: vi sinh vật — microorganism
  • Volapük: mikröb — microorganism
  • Yiddish: מיקראָב (mikrob) — microorganism