# germ
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /d͡ʒɜːm/
* (General American) enPR: jûrm, IPA: /d͡ʒɝm/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)m

### Noun

germ (plural germs)
* (biology) The small mass of cells from which a new organism develops; a seed, bud, spore, or zygote.
** The embryo of a seed, especially of a seed used as a cereal or grain. See Wikipedia article on cereal germ.
** (biology) The small mass of cells from which a part of an organism develops, or a macroscopic but immature form of that part; a bud.
    Coordinate term: vesicle
    Derived terms: germectomy
    surgical removal of germs of wisdom teeth
* A pathogen: a pathogenic microorganism, such as a bacterium or virus.
** 1895, H. G. Wells, The Stolen Bacillus:'This again,' said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, 'is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera - the cholera germ.'
* (figurative) The origin or earliest version of an idea or project.
    the germ of civil liberty
** 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194:What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth? - the dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.
* (mathematics) An equivalence class that includes a specified function defined in an open neighborhood.

#### Derived terms

* antigerm
* apical germ pore
* degerm
* dysgerminoma
* germband
* germ cell
* germ-fear
* germ fear
* germ-free
* germicidal
* germicide
* germinal
* germination
* germinative
* germinoma
* germ layer
* germless
* germlike
* germline
* germling
* germogen
* germophobe
* germophobic
* germ-plasm
* germ plasm
* germ pore
* germproof
* germ-ridden
* germ theory
* germ theory of disease
* germ tube
* germule
* germ warfare
* germy
* multigerm
* pangermist
* wheat germ

#### Related terms

* german
* germane
* germen
* germinate
* germination

#### Descendants

* → Tok Pisin: jem

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

germ (third-person singular simple present germs, present participle germing, simple past and past participle germed)
* To germinate.
** 1909, Thomas Hardy, The Flirt's Tragedy:Thus tempted, the lust to avenge me / Germed inly and grew.
* (slang) To grow, as if parasitic.
** 2011, Black Eyed Peas, Just Can't Get Enough:I’m addicted, want to germ inside your love

#### See also

* bacteria
* microbe
* parasite
* virus

#### Further reading

* “germ”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “germ”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

## Northern Kurdish
### Etymology

From Proto-Iranian *garmáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *gʰarmás, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰor-mó-s. Cognate with Persian گرم (garm) and English warm.

### Pronunciation

* Rhymes: -ɛɾm

### Adjective

germ (comparative germtir, superlative germtirîn)
* warm

#### Derived terms

* germahî

## Zazaki
### Etymology

From Proto-Iranian *garmáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *gʰarmás, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰor-mó-s. Cognate with Persian گرم (garm) and English warm.

### Adjective

germ
* warm

#### Derived terms

* germey
* germin
* germın