MICRO-ORGANISM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does micro-organism mean? 

• MICRO-ORGANISM (noun)
  The noun MICRO-ORGANISM has 1 sense:

1. any organism of microscopic size

  Familiarity information: MICRO-ORGANISM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MICRO-ORGANISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any organism of microscopic size

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

micro-organism; microorganism

Hypernyms ("micro-organism" is a kind of...):

being; organism (a living thing that has (or can develop) the ability to act or function independently)

Meronyms (parts of "micro-organism"):

pilus (hairlike structure especially on the surface of a cell or microorganism)

Domain category:

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

flora; plant; plant life ((botany) a living organism lacking the power of locomotion)

Domain member category:

virulence; virulency (extreme harmfulness (as the capacity of a microorganism to cause disease))

transmitter; vector (any agent (person or animal or microorganism) that carries and transmits a disease)

bacteremia; bacteriaemia; bacteriemia (transient presence of bacteria (or other microorganisms) in the blood)

highly infective ((of a microorganism) extremely infective)

motile ((of spores or microorganisms) capable of movement)

immotile; nonmotile ((of spores or microorganisms) not capable of movement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "micro-organism"):

monad ((biology) a single-celled microorganism (especially a flagellate protozoan))

intestinal flora (harmless microorganisms (as Escherichia coli) that inhabit the intestinal tract and are essential for its normal functioning)

virus ((virology) ultramicroscopic infectious agent that replicates itself only within cells of living hosts; many are pathogenic; a piece of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) wrapped in a thin coat of protein)

moneran; moneron (organisms that typically reproduce by asexual budding or fission and whose nutritional mode is absorption or photosynthesis or chemosynthesis)

bacteria; bacterium ((microbiology) single-celled or noncellular spherical or spiral or rod-shaped organisms lacking chlorophyll that reproduce by fission; important as pathogens and for biochemical properties; taxonomy is difficult; often considered to be plants)

bug; germ; microbe (a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use)

pathogen (any disease-producing agent (especially a virus or bacterium or other microorganism))

protoctist (any of the unicellular protists)

protist; protistan (free-living or colonial organisms with diverse nutritional and reproductive modes)

microflora (microscopic plants; bacteria are often considered to be microflora)

 Context examples 

The membrane technology purifies water while preventing biofouling, or build up of bacteria and other harmful micro-organisms that reduce the flow of water.

(Novel Technology Uses Bacteria for Cleaning Water, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)