word microbiome is derived from the ‘omics’ family of terminology, it should be used to describe the collective genomes of microbial species while the collection of organisms themselves should be termed “microbiota.” While this argument sounds reasonable, the word microbiome isn’t actually a derivative of the ‘omics’ naming scheme. One can find older uses. For example, in 1988, Whipps and colleagues used the term microbiome to describe the collection of microbes and their activities within a given environment.