germ
noun/dʒɜːm/
/dʒɜːrm/
- [countable, usually plural] a very small living thing that can cause infection and disease
- Disinfectant kills germs.
- Dirty hands can be a breeding ground for germs.
Extra ExamplesTopics Biologyb2, Health problemsb2- Cracks and scratches in work surfaces can harbour germs.
- The epidemic was caused by a particularly virulent flu germ.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- deadly
- drug-resistant
- resistant
- …
- carry
- spread
- destroy
- …
- warfare
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- [singular] germ of something an early stage of the development of something
- Here was the germ of a brilliant idea.
- The germ of the town was a single house near the river.
- [countable] (biology) the part of a plant or an animal that can develop into a new one
- The germ is the embryo of the new plant.
Word Originlate Middle English (in sense (3)): via Old French from Latin germen ‘seed, sprout’. Sense (1) dates from the late 19th cent.
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germ