microbe

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

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

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

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

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.

• See also Thesaurus:microorganism

• → Welsh: microb

• Crombie

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

• IPA^(key): /ˌmiˈkroː.bə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧cro‧be

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

1. (microbiology) microbe

• microbisch

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

• IPA^(key): /mi.kʁɔb/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

microbe m (plural microbes)

1. (microbiology) microbe

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

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