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View synonyms for bacterium

bacterium

[ bak-teer-ee-uhm ]

noun

  1. singular of bacteria.


bacterium

/ bækˈtɪərɪəm /

noun

  1. the singular of bacteria


bacterium

/ băk-tîrē-əm /

, Plural bacteria

  1. Any of a large group of one-celled organisms that lack a cell nucleus, reproduce by fission or by forming spores, and in some cases cause disease. They are the most abundant lifeforms on Earth, and are found in all living things and in all of the Earth's environments. Bacteria usually live off other organisms. Bacteria make up most of the kingdom of prokaryotes (Monera or Prokaryota), with one group (the archaea) sometimes classified as a separate kingdom.
  2. See also archaeon


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Word History and Origins

Origin of bacterium1

1840–50; < New Latin < Greek baktḗrion, diminutive of baktēría staff; akin to báktron stick, Latin baculum, bacillum

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Usage

It is important to remember that bacteria is the plural of bacterium, and that saying a bacteria is incorrect. It is correct to say The soil sample contains millions of bacteria, and Tetanus is caused by a bacterium.

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Example Sentences

No, not Ebola, but rather infection with the dreaded bacterium, Yersinia pestis.

Caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, the illness is transmitted by the bite of an infected tick.

One type of bacterium is likely very different from its neighbors, and may have equally different effects on the body.

Not only did the insertion work, the extra base pair was kept by offspring of the original bacterium.

Pertussis, or “whooping cough,” is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis.

It is a plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium that hasnt any wings and is uncertain.

Plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium that hasnt any wings and is uncertain.

When we have succeeded in isolating a certain kind of bacterium in a given dish, we are said to have a pure culture.

But probably each colony arose from a single bacterium which got into the dish when it was exposed to the air.

At the same time Prof. Bayley Balfour had examined it and concluded that it was a mixture of a yeast and a bacterium.

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bacteriotoxinbacteriuria