pathogen (plural pathogens)
- (pathology, immunology) Any organism or substance, especially a microorganism, capable of causing disease, such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa or fungi. Microorganisms are not considered to be pathogenic until they have reached a population size that is large enough to cause disease.
- 2013 January 1, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 9 February 2017, page 64:
- In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.
any organism or substance that causes disease
From πάθος (páthos, “suffering, pain”) + -γενής (-genḗs, “producer of”). Equivalent to patho- + -gen.
pathogen (strong nominative masculine singular pathogener, comparative pathogener, superlative am pathogensten)
- Synonym: krankheitserregend
Positive forms of pathogen
Comparative forms of pathogen
Superlative forms of pathogen
- “pathogen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “pathogen” in Duden online
- “pathogen”, in Online-Wortschatz-Informationssystem Deutsch (in German), Mannheim: Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, 2008–
- “pathogen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon