- able to cause or produce disease: pathogenic bacteria
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
path•o•gen•ic
(path′ə jen′ik),USA pronunciation adj.
- PathologyPathol. capable of producing disease: pathogenic bacteria.
- patho- + -genic 1850–55
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
pathogenic /ˌpæθəˈdʒɛnɪk/, pathogenous /pəˈθɒdʒɪnəs/ adj
path•o•gen /ˈpæθədʒən, -ˌdʒɛn/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Microbiologyany disease-producing agent, esp. a microorganism.
path•o•gen
(path′ə jən, -jen′),USA pronunciation n.
- Microbiologyany disease-producing agent, esp. a virus, bacterium, or other microorganism.
- patho- + -gen 1940–45
'pathogenic' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
asepsis
- aseptic
- Escherichia
- food poisoning
- infect
- infection
- morbific
- positive
- specific
- staphylococcus
- sterile
- streptococcus
- virus
- actinobacillus
- actinomyces
- actinomycete
- amebiasis
- attenuate
- babesia
- bacteroides
- blastomycete
- borrelia
- brucella
- carrier
- corynebacterium
- cross-resistance
- cytopathogenic
- defense mechanism
- disease
- Erwinia
- Escherichia coli
- fusobacterium
- gas bacillus
- Hemophilus
- klebsiella
- leptospira
- listeria
- microbe
- Moraxella
- mycobacterium
- neisseria
- nocardia
- pasteurella
- pathogenicity
- pseudomonas
- rhizoctonia
- treponema
- vector
- vibrio
- sepsis