superbug
superbug noun: a strain of bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics (e.g., MDR, XDR).
Noun
superbug (plural superbugs)
- A strain of bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics (e.g., MDR, XDR).
- But now we’re seeing increasing numbers of superbugs that survive antibiotics. One of the best-known [is] MRSA, a kind of staph infection [that] kills about 18,000 Americans annually. That’s more than die of AIDS.2010 March 7, Nicholas Kristof, “The Spread of Superbugs”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- Any pathogen resistant to many, even all, of the biocides or other agents used to treat similar pathogens.
- An invasive insect, Bemisia tabaci, that is a major pest of vegetable crops, both directly and as a virus vector.
- Synonyms:
- silverleaf whitefly
Synonyms of superbug
- silverleaf whitefly
Forms of superbug
| plural | superbugs |
|---|
Origin of superbug
From super- + bug.
Questions about superbug
- What does superbug mean?
- Superbug means a strain of bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics (e.g., MDR, XDR).
- What part of speech is superbug?
- Superbug is a noun.
- What is the plural of superbug?
- The plural of superbug is superbugs.
Words near superbug in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: superbug (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)-Flame, not lame-superbug.wav.
Cite this entry: “superbug.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/superbug. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.