microplastic

English

Etymology

micro- +‎ plastic

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.

   Hyponym: microbead

   • 2022 March 24, Damian Carrington, “Microplastics found in human blood for first time”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 2023 June 5, Yvonne Gordon, “Microplastics found in every sample of water taken during Ocean Race”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     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.

Coordinate terms

• macroplastic
• megaplastic
• mesoplastic
• nanoplastic

Translations

small particles of plastic

• Catalan: microplàstic m
• French: microplastique (fr) m
• German: Mikroplastik (de) n
• Italian: microplastica f
• Portuguese: microplástico m
• Spanish: microplástico (es) m

Adjective

microplastic (not comparable)

1. Exhibiting microplasticity.

Further reading

• microplastics on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English microplastic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmi.kroːˌplɛs.tɪk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧cro‧plas‧tic

Noun

microplastic n (plural microplastics)

1. (Netherlands) microplastic

   Synonym: microplastiek