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microbe

noun
/ˈmaɪkɹəʊb/UK/ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/US/ˈmaɪkɹoʊb/CA/ˈmɑɪkɹəʉb/

Etymology

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

  1. derived from μικρός — “small”
  2. borrowed from microbe

Definitions

  1. Any microorganism

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

    • 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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at microbe. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01microbe02bacterium03walls04wall05surrounding06environment07ecosystem08microbes

A definitional loop anchored at microbe. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at microbe

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA