Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A substance or agent that kills germs, especially pathogenic microorganisms; a disinfectant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which destroys germs; specifically, a substance capable of killing the germs, microbes, or micro-organisms of certain zymotic diseases, as cholera, or used for that purpose.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A germicidal agent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An agent that kills pathogenic organisms; a disinfectant

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an agent (as heat or radiation or a chemical) that destroys microorganisms that might carry disease

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

germ +‎ -cide

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