microorganism

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word microorganism. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word microorganism, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say microorganism in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word microorganism you have here. The definition of the word microorganism will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofmicroorganism, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: microörganism and micro-organism

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

From micro- +‎ organism.

Pronunciation

Noun

microorganism (plural microorganisms)

  1. (microbiology) An organism that is too small to be seen by the unaided eye; especially, a single-celled organism, such as a bacterium.
    Synonym: microbe
    The cud is then reswallowed and further digested by specialized microorganisms that live in the rumen.
    • 1957, Communicationes Veterinariae - Volumes 1-3, page 52:
      Bacillus anthracis: from the first up to the sixth day, this microorganism was isolatable, or in other words still alive.
    • 2015 July 11, “Antimicrobial Photoinactivation Using Visible Light Plus Water-Filtered Infrared-A (VIS + wIRA) Alters In Situ Oral Biofilms”, in PLOS ONE‎, →DOI:
      The differences in biofilm penetration patterns of both tested photosensitisers and the light source could have played an important role for the survival of microorganisms after the application of aPDT. In a recent own study, we showed that the deepest layers of the oral biofilm were not affected by the aPDT [4 ].

Usage notes

  • Whether viruses are alive, and thus whether they are microorganisms (microbes), is a matter of variable ontology; the semantic field of the word microorganism is often taken to include viruses in casual or broad terms, but not always in precise terms.
  • GPO manual recommends using a hyphen to avoid doubling a vowel except after short prefixes.[1] However, microorganism is several times more common than micro-organism in print[2] and most dictionaries only have the spelling microorganism.

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ 6. Compounding Rules in U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, govinfo.gov
  2. ^ (microorganism*0.2),micro-organism at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.

Further reading

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French microorganisme.

Noun

microorganism n (plural microorganisme)

  1. microorganism

Declension

singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative microorganism microorganismul microorganisme microorganismele
genitive-dative microorganism microorganismului microorganisme microorganismelor
vocative microorganismule microorganismelor
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia