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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
Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 3 June 2026
The mummy is, in a very real sense, a living biological interface — a meeting point between the ancient world and the present, where microbes from 5,000 years ago coexist with organisms that arrived last decade.
—CBS News, 3 June 2026
These penetrate fabric fibers and destroy microbes through oxidative stress.
—Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 2 June 2026
After radiation wiped out the soil microbes, the carbon emission rate declined quickly but didn’t disappear.
—Siddhant Pusdekar, Quanta Magazine, 1 June 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Microbe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/microbe. Accessed 5 Jun. 2026.
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microbe
noun
Medical Definition
microbe
noun
