Related Searches
Nearby Words
| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | microscopic organism, often causing illness |
| Synonyms: | antibody, bacterium, bug*, disease, microbe, microorganism, parasite, pathogen, plague, virus, what's going around |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | beginning |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | origin, cause |
| Synonyms: | antecedent, birth, conception, egg, embryo, font, fount, fountain, fountainhead, generation, genesis, germ, heart, principle, resource, root, seed, stem, well |
| Antonyms: | conclusion, outcome, result |
| Main Entry: | bud |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | new sprout on plant |
| Synonyms: | bloom, blossom, embryo, floret, germ, incipient flower, nucleus, shoot, spark |
| Main Entry: | bug |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | bacterium, microorganism |
| Synonyms: | bacillus, disease, germ, infection, microbe, virus |
| Notes: | a bug is a particular kind of insect, specifically belonging to the order Hemiptera (tough leathery forewings attached to the body - like ladybugs, beetles) while insects generally belong to the class Insecta, which have bodies in three segments, usually two pairs or wings and three pairs of legs (like bees, mosquitoes); spiders are not technically insects because they have four pairs of legs insect (from Latin animal insectum) literally meant 'divided animal' or 'cut up or into' from the segments of its body (head, thorax, abdomen) - the common word being 'bug'; insect is any of an extremely large group of small invertebrate animals - and most undergo metamorphosis while bug denotes a special group of insects with beaklike sucking mouth parts and partly membranous forewings |
| Main Entry: | cell |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | smallest living organism |
| Synonyms: | bacterium, cellule, corpuscle, egg, embryo, follicle, germ, haematid, microorganism, spore, unit, utricle, vacuole |
| Notes: | a cell is a small compartment or the basic structural and functional unit of all organisms, while sell means to exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent |
| Main Entry: | egg |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | seed, cell; embryo of an animal |
| Synonyms: | bud, cackle, cackleberry, germ, nucleus, oospore, ovum, roe, rudiment, spawn, yellow eye |
| Main Entry: | essence |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | heart, significance |
| Synonyms: | aspect, attribute, backbone, base, basis, be-all and end-all, being, bottom, bottom line, burden, caliber, character, chief constituent, constitution, core, crux, element, entity, essentia, essentiality, fiber, form, fundamentals, germ, grain, kernel, life, lifeblood, main idea, marrow, meaning, meat*, name of game, nature, nitty-gritty, nub, nucleus, pith, point, principle, property, quality, quiddity, quintessence, reality, root, soul, spirit, structure, stuff, substance, timber, vein, virtuality |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | kernel |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | seed, essence |
| Synonyms: | atom, bit, center, core, crux, fruit, germ, gist, grain, heart, hub, keynote, marrow, matter, meat, morsel, nub, nubbin, nut, part, piece, pith, root, substance, upshot |
| Notes: | a kernel is the inner and usually edible part of a seed or grain, while a colonel is a commissioned military rank |
| Main Entry: | microbe |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | bacteria |
| Synonyms: | bacillus, bacterium, bug*, crud, germ, microorganism, pathogen, plague, virus |
* = informal/non-formal usage
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
