germ
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /d͡ʒɜːm/
enpr: jûrm
ipa: /d͡ʒɝm/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)m
Forms: form: germs
Etymology: From Middle French germe, from Latin germen (“bud, seed, embryo”). Doublet of germen.
Senses: topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: 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.
examples: text: surgical removal of germs of wisdom teeth
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: The small mass of cells from which a new organism develops; a seed, bud, spore, or zygote.
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_terms: vesicle
examples: text: 'This again,' said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, 'is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera - the cholera germ.'
ref: 1895, H. G. Wells, The Stolen Bacillus:
glosses: A pathogen: a pathogenic microorganism, such as a bacterium or virus.
examples: text: the germ of civil liberty
text: Now all his ponderings, however excursive, wheeled round Isabel as their center; and back to her they came again from every excursion; and again derived some new, small germs for wonderment.
ref: 1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: The origin or earliest version of an idea or project.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: An equivalence class that includes a specified function defined in an open neighborhood.
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: antigerm
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: apical germ pore
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: degerm
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: dysgerminoma
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: epithelial germ
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germband
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ cell
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ-free
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ history
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germicidal
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germicide
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germinal
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germination
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germinative
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germinoma
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ layer
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germless
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germlike
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germline
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germling
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germogen
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germophobe
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germophobia
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germophobic
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ-plasm
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ plasm
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ pore
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germproof
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ-ridden
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ theory
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ theory of disease
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ tube
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germule
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germ warfare
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: germy
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: multigerm
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: pangermist
sense: terms derived from germ (noun)
word: wheat germ
Related terms: german
germane
germen
germinate
germination