Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

microbe

/ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.63 in modern English

Syllables: mi-crobe
IPA: /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/

13

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

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

Example Sentences

"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."
"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."

Etymology

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

Origin

Source language: Ancient Greek

Word Breakdown

Root: μικρός

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/
British English: /ˈmaɪkɹəʊb/

Inflected Forms

microbes (plural)

Derived Forms

antimicrobe microbeless microbial microbian microbic microbicide microbiosis microbism microbivore microbivorous mimivirus nanobe

Frequently Paired Words

microorganism

Synonyms

bug germ

Questions

How do you pronounce microbe?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/.
What does microbe mean?: Any microorganism; (loosely, nonscientifically) especially, a harmful bacterium.
Where does microbe come from?: It is traced to Ancient Greek.

How to pronounce microbe

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “microbe”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “microbe”.
Repeat and practice — Say “microbe” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.