Final answer:
The correct term is thermal death time, which refers to the time needed to sterilize a sample by killing all the contained microbes at a set temperature.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term used to describe the time required to kill all of the microbes within a sample at a given temperature is the thermal death time (C).
Thermal death time is a specific measurement used to gauge the effectiveness of sterilization processes. It is the amount of time at a certain temperature required to kill a specific population of microorganisms.