germ

Meaning

Noun

1. The small mass of cells from which a new organism develops; a seed, bud, spore, or zygote.
2. The small mass of cells from which a new organism develops; a seed, bud, spore, or zygote.
3. A pathogen: a pathogenic microorganism, such as a bacterium or virus.
4. (figuratively) The origin or earliest version of an idea or project.
5. An equivalence class that includes a specified function defined in an open neighborhood.

Verb

1. To germinate.
2. (slang) To grow, as if parasitic.

Synonyms

microbe

🦠

bacteria

seed

bacterium

virus

embryo

bug

🐛

bacillus

sprout

pathogen

microorganism

bud

beginning

source

germination

decay

embryo bud

semen

shoot

sign

sperm

spore

start

stimulus

worm

🪱

pathogenic bacteria

young plant

plantule

bud of a plant

causative organism

causal organism

disease germ

stem bud

embryonic bud

agent

germinal bud

animalcule

bacteriological

beginnings

caterpillar

🐛

causative agent

cell

conceptus

egg

🥚

fungus

gemmule

germ cell

germinate

maggot

micro-organism

Translations

germe

germen

Keim

germe

germe

kiem

μικρόβιο

microbe

🦠

Krankheitserreger

σπέρμα

microbo

🦠

Bakterie

agent pathogène

germen

Pronounced as (IPA)

/d͡ʒɜːm/

Etymology

From Middle French germe, from Latin germen (“bud, seed, embryo”). Doublet of germen.