This common meaning refers broadly to bacteria, viruses, and other microscopic agents associated with illness.
Wash your hands to remove germs.
Some germs spread through the air.
This figurative meaning refers to the first small idea or element from which something larger develops.
The conversation contained the germ of a new plan.
That observation was the germ of her theory.
In biology, germ can refer to reproductive material or the developing part of a seed or organism.
The wheat germ contains nutrients.
The germ develops into a new organism.
