Word.ws English Dictionary

biofilm

biofilm noun: a structured community of microorganisms, such as bacteria, that adhere to a surface and are embedded in a self-produced protective matrix of mucuslike extracellular material.

Noun

biofilm (countable and uncountable, plural biofilms)

  1. A structured community of microorganisms, such as bacteria, that adhere to a surface and are embedded in a self-produced protective matrix of mucuslike extracellular material.
    • The differences in biofilm penetration patterns of both tested photosensitisers and the light source could have played an important role for the survival of microorganisms after the application of aPDT. In a recent own study, we showed that the deepest layers of the oral biofilm were not affected...2015 November 7, “Antimicrobial Photoinactivation Using Visible Light Plus Water-Filtered Infrared-A (VIS + wIRA) Alters In Situ Oral Biofilms”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI
    • These interactions are essential for the assembly of an exopolysaccharides-rich matrix and the development of cospecies biofilms.2016 March 3, “Streptococcus mutans Can Modulate Biofilm Formation and Attenuate the Virulence of Candida albicans”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI

Examples of biofilm in a sentence

  • There was no correlation between adherence and biofilm production among invasive isolates.
  • Note how the microstromatolite and surrounding basalt are overgrown by the biofilm and how hyphae protrude.
  • Many species creating these Tintenstriche can be found in cyanobacteria-dominated biofilms all over the world.

All 13 example sentences with biofilm

Forms of biofilm

pluralbiofilms

Origin of biofilm

From bio- + film. First used in the early 1970s in the context of wastewater treatment.

Words formed from biofilm

Questions about biofilm

What does biofilm mean?
Biofilm means a structured community of microorganisms, such as bacteria, that adhere to a surface and are embedded in a self-produced protective matrix of mucuslike extracellular material.
What part of speech is biofilm?
Biofilm is a noun.
What is the plural of biofilm?
The plural of biofilm is biofilms.

Words near biofilm in the dictionary

  1. biofidelity
  2. biofield
  3. biofields
  4. biofilament
  5. biofilaments
  6. biofilm
  7. biofilmed
  8. biofilms
  9. biofilter
  10. biofiltered
  11. biofiltering

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: biofilm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-biofilm.wav.

Cite this entry: “biofilm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/biofilm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.