殺菌

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 殺菌, read さっきん, combines killing 殺 with microbes 菌 to denote antimicrobial treatment.
• Basic usage: It denotes treatment that kills or greatly reduces microorganisms, as in 瓶を殺菌する.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Distinguishing meanings
  • Its scope can differ from 滅菌, which means sterilization eliminating all viable microorganisms, so do not treat the terms as automatically identical.