| See under gram 2 . |
[gram] 
| 1. | (in the East Indies) the chickpea used as a food for people and cattle. |
| 2. | any of several other beans, as the mung bean, Vigna radiata (green gram or golden gram), or the urd, V. mungo (black gram). |
[oo
rd, urd] | a plant, Vigna mungo, of the legume family, widely cultivated in tropical Asia for its edible seeds and for forage. |
Gram (grām, gräm), Hans Christian Joachim. 1853-1938.
Danish physician who developed (1884) Gram's stain as a method of distinguishing types of bacteria.
| Gram (gräm, grām) Pronunciation Key
Danish bacteriologist who in 1884 developed a method of staining bacteria, called Gram's stain or Gram's dye, that is used to identify and classify bacteria, often from samples of infected body fluids. The classification, called gram-negative or gram-positive, can be useful in the initial selection of antibiotics to treat the infection. |