Word.ws English Dictionary

microplastic

microplastic noun: small particles of plastic (typically less than 5 mm) produced by the degradation of plastic products, found in high levels in the marine environment and increasingly throughout all environments and in food and drinks.

Noun

microplastic (countable and uncountable, plural microplastics)

  1. Small particles of plastic (typically less than 5 mm) produced by the degradation of plastic products, found in high levels in the marine environment and increasingly throughout all environments and in food and drinks.
    • Huge amounts of plastic waste are dumped in the environment and microplastics now contaminate the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans.2022 March 24, Damian Carrington, “Microplastics found in human blood for first time”, in The Guardian
    • Sailors testing the waters during the Ocean Race, which travels through some of the world’s most remote ocean environments, have found microplastics in every sample.2023 June 5, Yvonne Gordon, “Microplastics found in every sample of water taken during Ocean Race”, in The Guardian

Adjective

microplastic (not comparable)

  1. Exhibiting microplasticity.

microplastic meaning in Bengali, Malay and Thai

microplastic in Bengali

মাইক্রোপ্লাস্টিক

microplastic in Malay

small particles of plastic
mikroplastik

microplastic in Thai

small particles of plastic
ไมโครพลาสติก mai-kroo-pláas-dtìk

Forms of microplastic

pluralmicroplastics

Origin of microplastic

From micro- + plastic.

Questions about microplastic

What does microplastic mean?
Microplastic means small particles of plastic (typically less than 5 mm) produced by the degradation of plastic products, found in high levels in the marine environment and increasingly throughout all environments and in food and drinks.
What is microplastic in Bengali?
Microplastic in Bengali is মাইক্রোপ্লাস্টিক. See Microplastic meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is microplastic?
Microplastic can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of microplastic?
The plural of microplastic is microplastics.

Words near microplastic in the dictionary

  1. microplasminogen
  2. microplasminogens
  3. microplasmins
  4. microplasmodia
  5. microplasmodium
  6. microplastic
  7. microplasticity
  8. microplastics
  9. microplate
  10. microplate reader
  11. microplate readers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: microplastic (page history and authors); Microplastic (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-microplastic.wav.

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