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Another word for germ

a-z
Noun

  1. A minute organism usually producing disease

      1. An enthusiasm or obsession:
      2. An enthusiast or devotee; a buff:
      3. A disease-producing microorganism or agent:
      1. A microscopic organism; esp., any of the bacteria that cause disease; germ
      2. (Microbiology) Any microorganism, but specially said of those microorganisms which are harmful types of bacteria.
      3. A minute life form; a microorganism, especially a bacterium that causes disease. Not in technical use.
      1. An organism or infectious agent of microscopic or submicroscopic size, especially a bacterium or protozoan.
      2. Any microscopic or ultramicroscopic animal, plant, bacterium, virus, etc.
      3. (Microbiology) An organism that is too small to be seen by the unaided eye, especially a single-celled organism, such as a bacterium.
    See also:

    beings

  2. A source of further growth and development

      1. A small, rounded organic part, such as a taste bud, that resembles a plant bud.
      2. A small swelling or projection on a plant, from which a shoot, cluster of leaves, or flower develops
      3. A small swelling on a branch or stem, containing an undeveloped shoot, leaf, or flower. Some species have mixed buds containing two of these structures, or even all three. &diamf3; Terminal buds occur at the end of a stem, twig, or branch. &diamf3; Axillary buds, also known as lateral buds , occur in the axils of leaves (in the upper angle of where the leaf grows from the stem). &diamf3; Accessory buds often occur clustered around terminal buds or above and on either side of axillary buds. Accessory buds are usually smaller than terminal and axillary buds.
      1. A collection of such cells of a human, especially from implantation in the uterine wall through the eighth week of development.
      2. The collection of cells that has developed from the fertilized egg of a vertebrate animal, before all the major organs have developed.
      3. The rudimentary plant contained in a seed, usually made up of hypocotyl, radicle, plumule, and cotyledons
      1. A grain or seed, as of corn, wheat, etc.
      2. The usually edible seed inside the hard covering of a nut or fruit stone.
      3. A grain or seed, as of a cereal grass, enclosed in a husk.
      1. (Phonet.) The most sonorous portion of a syllable, usually a vowel
      2. (Anatomy) A group of specialized nerve cells or a localized mass of gray matter in the brain or spinal cord.
      3. (Biol.) The central, usually spherical or oval mass of protoplasm present in most plant and animal cells, containing most of the hereditary material and necessary to such functions as growth, reproduction, etc.
      1. A mature plant ovule containing an embryo.
      2. Seeds considered as a group:
      3. The seed-bearing stage of a plant:
      1. A glowing bit of matter, esp. one thrown off by a fire
      2. (Electricity) The luminous phenomenon resulting from a disruptive discharge through an insulating material.
      3. A flash of light, especially a flash produced by electric discharge.
    See also:

    start

© Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Another word for germ

Noun

  1. Origin

      1. The beginning of something; start; commencement
      1. A person, book, document, etc. that provides information
      2. One, such as a person or document, that supplies information:
      3. A person or thing from which something comes into being or is derived or obtained:
      1. The source, origin, or cause of an action, quality, condition, etc.
      2. (Linguistics) The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.
      3. A primary source; an origin; radix.
      1. The chief constituent; the fundamental ingredient:
      2. An underlying circumstance or condition:
      3. A condition for relating or proceeding:
    See also:

    origin

  2. Embryo

      1. Seeds considered as a group:
      2. Seeds collectively
      3. The seed-bearing stage of a plant:
      1. A small, rounded organic part, such as a taste bud, that resembles a plant bud.
      2. A small swelling on a branch or stem, containing an undeveloped shoot, leaf, or flower. Some species have mixed buds containing two of these structures, or even all three. &diamf3; Terminal buds occur at the end of a stem, twig, or branch. &diamf3; Axillary buds, also known as lateral buds , occur in the axils of leaves (in the upper angle of where the leaf grows from the stem). &diamf3; Accessory buds often occur clustered around terminal buds or above and on either side of axillary buds. Accessory buds are usually smaller than terminal and axillary buds.
      3. A small swelling or projection on a plant, from which a shoot, cluster of leaves, or flower develops
      1. (Archaic) A young, immature person.
      2. A person as the offspring or scion of a family, institution, class, etc.
      3. A small shoot or twig of a plant.
    See also:

    egg

    fetus

  3. Bacillus

      1. (Microbiology) Any microorganism, but specially said of those microorganisms which are harmful types of bacteria.
      2. A minute life form; a microorganism, especially a bacterium that causes disease. Not in technical use.
      3. A microscopic organism; esp., any of the bacteria that cause disease; germ
      1. In the two-empire system, a taxonomic kingdom, within domain Prokaryota: single cell organisms (the bacteria); once divided into the Archaebacteria and Eubacteria.
      2. In the three-domain system, a taxonomic domain comprising the single kingdom also called Bacteria, containing about 25 phyla.
      3. Any of a division (Bacteria) of monerans, microorganisms which are typically one-celled, have no chlorophyll, multiply by simple division, and can be seen only with a microscope: they occur in three main forms, spherical (cocci), rod-shaped (bacilli), and spiral (spirilla): some bacteria cause diseases such as pneumonia and anthrax, and others are necessary for fermentation, nitrogen fixation, etc.
      1. An organism or infectious agent of microscopic or submicroscopic size, especially a bacterium or protozoan.
      2. (Microbiology) An organism that is too small to be seen by the unaided eye, especially a single-celled organism, such as a bacterium.
      3. Any microscopic or ultramicroscopic animal, plant, bacterium, virus, etc.
      1. A harmful or destructive influence:
      2. Any of various infectious agents, usually ultramicroscopic, that consist of nucleic acid, either RNA or DNA, within a case of protein: they infect animals, plants, and bacteria and reproduce only within living cells: viruses are considered as being nonliving chemical units or sometimes as living organisms
      3. A disease caused by a virus
      1. Any of the prokaryotic organisms, such as an archaeon. Not in scientific use.
      2. Any of various prokaryotic microorganisms of the domain Bacteria that may be free-living, saprophytic, commensal, or pathogenic and that vary widely in terms of morphology, oxygen tolerance, nutritional and temperature requirements, and motility.
      3. Bacteria
      1. Any agent, esp. a microorganism, able to cause disease
      2. An agent that causes disease, especially a virus, bacterium, or fungus.
      1. One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
      2. (Biology) An organism that lives and feeds on or in an organism of a different species and causes harm to its host.
      3. (Biol.) A plant or animal that lives on or in an organism of another species from which it derives sustenance or protection without benefit to, and usually with harmful effects on, the host
      1. Any small arthropod, esp. if regarded as a pest, as a louse, cockroach, or centipede
      2. A disease-producing microorganism or agent:
      3. An insect having mouthparts used for piercing and sucking, such as an aphid, a bedbug, or a stinkbug.
© WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD® ROGET’S A-Z THESAURUS by Charlton Laird and the editors of Webster’s New World dictionaries. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Sentence Examples

  • But this small village, germ of something more, why did it fail while Concord keeps its ground?

  • Here we have the germ of orders in the technical sense.

  • In the relation between Zoroaster and Vishtaspa already lies the germ of the state church which afterwards became completely subservient to the interests of the dynasty and sought its protection from it.

  • Louis Pasteur came along around this same time and proffered the germ theory of disease and a vaccine for rabies.

  • Wheeler, the amnion is ruptured and turned back from covering the germ band, enclosing the yolk dorsally and becoming finally absorbed, as the ectoderm of the germ band itself spreads to form the dorsal wall.

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