Microbial

How to spell microbial

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce microbial

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does microbial mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or caused by microbes such as bacteria, fungi, or other microscopic organisms.

Microbial in a sentence

• The laboratory tested the water for microbial contamination.

• Refrigeration slows microbial growth in fresh food.

Where does microbial come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This adjective derives from the noun microbe, a word coined in French in 1878 by the surgeon Charles Sedillot, who fused two Greek roots: mikros, meaning 'small', and bios, meaning 'life'. The intended sense was a 'tiny living thing', a single label for the bacteria and other organisms too small for the naked eye to see. The term spread quickly through scientific writing in the era of Louis Pasteur, when germ theory was reshaping medicine, and English adopted microbe within a few years. The adjective microbial was formed by adding the ordinary Latin-derived ending -al, which turns a noun into a describing word. Because the spelling keeps the 'i' from bios before the ending, it reads micro-bi-al rather than the tempting 'microbal', and that buried 'i' is the main thing writers drop.

How the word is built

• micro- (small)
• -bi- (from Greek bios: life)
• -al (adjective suffix)