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A hint of the Greek word bios, meaning "life", can be seen in microbe. Microbes, or microorganisms, include bacteria, protozoa, fungi, algae, amoebas, and slime molds. Many people think of microbes as simply the causes of disease, but every human is actually the host to billions of microbes, and most of them are essential to our life. Much research is now going into possible microbial sources of future energy; algae looks particularly promising, as do certain newly discovered or created microbes that can produce cellulose, to be turned into ethanol and other biofuels.
Examples of microbe in a Sentence
Jackie Wattles, CNN, 29 Mar. 2024
In the short term, dead cicadas have a fertilizing effect, feeding microbes in the soil and helping plants grow larger.
—Celia Ford, WIRED, 28 Mar. 2024
One of the indignities of getting older is the way your body’s defenses against microbes begin to break down, leaving you extra vulnerable to infection.
—Megan Molteni, STAT, 27 Mar. 2024
Yogurt is a source of probiotics, or live microbes that aid in healthy digestion.
—Amanda MacMillan, Health, 24 Mar. 2024
Much as humans outsource crucial parts of digestion to the microbes inhabiting our guts, plants rely on a similar microbial network to produce hormones, process nutrients and fight off disease.
—Maddie Bender, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Mar. 2024
Both are ecosystems fueled by chemical energy and not sunlight, where the tiny microbes living in them can turn methane into food.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 6 Mar. 2024
American homes might have been stocked with tests for a multitude of infectious microbes, and masks to wear when people started to cough.
—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 28 Feb. 2024
One of those microbes, Fusobacterium nucleatum, can travel down the digestive tract and latch onto cells throughout the gut.
—Claire Bugos, Verywell Health, 8 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'microbe.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Microbe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/microbe. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.
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microbe
noun
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microbe
noun
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