microorganism

microorganism

See also: microörganism and micro-organism

English

Alternative forms

• micro-organism
• microörganism

Etymology

From micro- +‎ organism.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌmaɪ.kɹəʊˈɔː.ɡəˌnɪz.m̩/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌmaɪ.kɹoʊˈɔɹ.ɡəˌnɪz.m̩/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

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.

   The cud is then reswallowed and further digested by specialized microorganisms that live in the rumen.

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.

Related terms

• microbe

Translations

an organism too small to be seen by unaided eye

Arabic: مِيكْرُوب‎ m (mikrūb) Armenian: միկրոօրգանիզմ (hy) (mikroōrganizm) Assamese: বীজাণু (bizanu) Asturian: microorganismu (ast) m Belarusian: мікрааргані́зм m (mikraarhanízm) Bulgarian: микрооргани́зъм (bg) m (mikroorganízǎm) Catalan: microorganisme m Chinese: Mandarin: 微生物 (zh) (wéishēngwù) Czech: mikroorganismus (cs) m Danish: mikroorganisme (da) c Dutch: micro-organisme (nl) n Esperanto: mikroorganismo Estonian: mikroorganism Faroese: smávera f Finnish: mikro-organismi (fi) French: microorganisme (fr) m Galician: microorganismo m Georgian: მიკროორგანიზმი (miḳroorganizmi) German: Mikroorganismus (de) m Greek: μικροοργανισμός (el) m (mikroorganismós) Hebrew: מיקרואורגניזם‎ (he) m (mikro'organízm) Hindi: सूक्ष्मजीव (sūkṣmajīv) Hungarian: mikroorganizmus (hu) Icelandic: örvera f Ido: mikroorganismo (io), mikrobo (io) Indonesian: mikroorganisme (id) Italian: microrganismo (it) m Japanese: 微生物 (ja) (びせいぶつ, biseibutsu) Kazakh: микроағза (mikroağza) Khmer: អតិសុខុមកាយ (ʼaʼtesokhomĕəʼkaay) Korean: 미생물(微生物) (ko) (misaengmul) Lao: ຈຸນລະຊີບ (lo) (chun la sīp) Latvian: mikroorganisms m Malay: mikroorganisma (ms) Maori: moroiti Navajo: chʼosh doo yitʼínii Occitan: microorganisme m Persian: میکرب‎ (fa) (mikrob) Polish: mikroorganizm (pl) m Portuguese: micro-organismo (pt) m, microrganismo (pt) m Romanian: microorganism (ro) n Russian: микрооргани́зм (ru) m (mikroorganízm) Serbo-Croatian: mikroorganìzam (sh) m Spanish: microorganismo (es) m Swedish: mikroorganism (sv) c Tagalog: miktataghay Telugu: సూక్ష్మజీవి (te) (sūkṣmajīvi) Thai: จุลชีพ (th) (jun-lá-chêep), จุลินทรีย์ (th) (jù-lin-sii) Turkish: mikroorganizma (tr) Ukrainian: мікрооргані́зм m (mikroorhanízm) Vietnamese: vi trùng (vi) (微蟲), vi khuẩn (vi) (微菌), vi sinh vật (vi) (微生物) West Frisian: mikro-organisme

See also

• macroorganism

References

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

Further reading

• microorganism at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “microorganism”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
• “microorganism”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

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Romanian

Etymology

From French microorganisme.

Noun

microorganism n (plural microorganisme)

1. microorganism

Declension

Declension of microorganism

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) microorganism	microorganismul	(niște) microorganisme	microorganismele
genitive/dative	(unui) microorganism	microorganismului	(unor) microorganisme	microorganismelor
vocative	microorganismule		microorganismelor