Standard Lemma guide

pathogen

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.

  • /ˈpæθəd͡ʒn̩/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P AE1 TH AH0 JH AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An agent that can cause disease, especially an infectious microorganism, such as a bacterium, virus, protozoon or fungus.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: immunology, medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: infectious agent

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: agent, entity

2

noun

Meaning 2

any disease-producing agent (especially a virus or bacterium or other microorganism)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: microorganism, micro-organism, infectious agent, infective agent

History

Etymology

From patho- + -gen. Second element ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh1- (“lineage”) through Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “birth”)

Across languages

Translations

57 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: sëmundjeshkaktues — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Arabic: مسببات الأمراض — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Bulgarian: болестотворен организъм (bolestotvoren organizǎm) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Catalan: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Chinese Mandarin: 病原體 /病原体 (bìngyuántǐ) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Czech: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Dutch: pathogeen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Dutch: ziektekiem — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Finnish: patogeeni — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Finnish: taudinaiheuttaja — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • French: pathogène — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • German: Krankheitserreger — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Greek: παθογόνος (pathogónos) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Hebrew: פתוגן (patogen) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Hindi: रोगाणु (rogāṇu) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Hindi: रोगजनक (rogajnak) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Hungarian: kórokozó — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Hungarian: patogén — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Indonesian: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Irish: pataigin — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Italian: patogeno — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Italian: agente patogeno — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Japanese: 病原体 (byōgentai) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Japanese: 病原菌 (byōgenkin) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Kannada: ರೋಗಾಣು (rōgāṇu) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Kazakh: патоген (patogen) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Northern Kurdish: hokara nexweşiyê — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Northern Kurdish: tûşker — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Latin: pathogenum — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Latvian: patogēns — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Lithuanian: patogenas — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Lithuanian: ligos sukėlėjas — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Malay: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Māori: tukumate — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Māori: moroiti tahumaero — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Norwegian Bokmål: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Occitan: patogèn — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Persian: بیماریزا (bimâri-zâ) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Polish: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Portuguese: patógeno — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Quechua: unquchiq — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Romanian: agent patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Russian: патоге́н (patogén) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Slovak: patogén — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Slovene: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Spanish: patógeno — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Sundanese: ᮊᮥᮙᮔ᮪ (kuman) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Swedish: smittämne — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Swedish: patogen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Tagalog: mulsakit — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Tamil: நோய்க்காரணி (nōykkāraṇi) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Telugu: వ్యాధికారకం (vyādhikārakaṁ) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Thai: จุลชีพก่อโรค — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Turkish: patojen — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Ukrainian: патоген (patohen) — any organism or substance that causes disease
  • Vietnamese: mầm bệnh — any organism or substance that causes disease