What it means
The beginning of words for things too small to see or tiny in size. A microscope lets you see microorganisms such as bacteriumbak-TEER-ee-umA tiny one-celled living thing, seen only under a microscope, of which some kinds cause disease; the plural is bacteria.Full entry ; microcephaly is a smaller-than-normal head; a microbe is a tiny living thing. In measurement, a microgram (mcg) is one millionth of a gram, a thousand times smaller than a milligram.
For the nurse
Write "mcg" for microgram. The symbol µg is on ISMP's error-prone list because it can be misread as mg, a thousandfold overdose.
At a glance
| Also written | micr- |
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Related terms
-scope
A word ending that means an instrument for looking or examining.