pathogen
Americannoun
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pathogens
plural
noun
-
An agent that causes infection or disease, especially a microorganism, such as a bacterium or protozoan, or a virus.
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See Note at germ
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of pathogen
Explanation
A pathogen is a tiny living organism, such as a bacterium or virus, that makes people sick. Washing your hands frequently helps you avoid the pathogens that can make you sick. Pathos is the Greek word for disease and -genes means "born of." So, a pathogen is something that causes disease, like a virus like the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. At summer picnics, people are cautious about keeping certain foods like potato salad in coolers with ice — the eggs in such dishes spoil quickly out in the heat, introducing pathogens that can make people sick.
Vocabulary lists containing pathogen
Common Senses: Path ("Feeling")
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Rather than testing whether a person has antibodies against a single pathogen, researchers can examine a much broader immune landscape shaped by previous exposure to viruses, bacteria and other immune targets.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
It was a sick new business model and digital pathogen.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
The virus was detected this month in a Phillip Island penguin that had died, the first infection in the colony by a pathogen that has caused severe disease and death in birds worldwide.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Salmonella, a bacterial pathogen, is one of the most common causes of food poisoning.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
In the second stage a former animal pathogen evolves to the point where it does get transmitted directly between people and causes epidemics.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The potential use of chatbots or agents to develop deadly pathogens has long been a concern among AI safety experts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Those pathogens can then be transferred to the next creature the insect feeds on when it deposits saliva into that creature’s bloodstream.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
"Arginine supplementation could be readily tested in patients receiving immunotherapies or given to high-risk populations exposed to viral pathogens," Tavazoie suggests.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
Then there are those that get sick, or become susceptible to pathogens fueled by the increasing temperatures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
The insect pathogens are so specific that they infect only a small group of insects — sometimes a single species.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
