A microorganism, especially a disease-causing bacterium or virus; -- used informally, as, the don't eat food that falls on the floor, it may have germs on it.

A micro-organism that causes disease

A pathogenic micro organism. Microbes and bacteria are germs.

The embryo of a kernel of grain, such as wheat, making up about 2.5 percent of the kernel's weight; often separated out in processed flour because its fat content makes flour more perishable. Wheat germ, which is left in whole wheat flour, has a large content of complex vitamins and trace minerals. It can also be purchased separately.

The embryo of the wheat kernel that will develop into a wheat plant.

The term used by millers to denote the embryo of cereals.

The germ cells, collectively, as distinguished from the somatic cells, or soma. Germ is often used in place of germinal to form phrases; as, germ area, germ disc, germ membrane, germ nucleus, germ sac, etc.

A rapidly growing cell.

That which is to develop a new individual; as, the germ of a fetus, of a plant or flower, and the like; the earliest form under which an organism appears.

the first anlage of an organism; conceptus.

In mathematics, a germ of (continuous, differentiable or analytic) functions is an equivalence class of (continuous, differentiable or analytic) functions from a topological space to another (often from the real line to itself), grouped together on the basis of their equality on the neighborhood of a fixed reference point in their domain of definition. In the same way, a germ of sets is an equivalence class of subsets of a given topological space, grouped together on the basis of their equality on the neighborhood of a fixed reference point belonging to all of them.

a small simple structure (as a fertilized egg) from which new tissue can develop into a complete organism

a simple but very individual being

cell: Egg (oocyte) or sperm.

That from which anything springs; origin; first principle; as, the germ of civil liberty.

anything that provides inspiration for later work

pore a thin circular area in the spore wall through which the germ tube develops.

a point of energy having within it certain living potentialities, causing certain effects upon the surrounding field of energy, and producing certain forms of expression which are recognizable upon the physical plane

an instance of the virus in generation zero, and in such a form that the infection could not have happened naturally

To germinate.