bacterium
noun/bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/
Etymology From New Latin bactērium, from Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion, “small staff”), from βακτηρία (baktēría).
1
Biology, Microbiology, Natural sciences A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.
- Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 14 Aug 2020:
- Synonyms
- bacterium
- Derived terms
42 terms
agrobacterium, archaebacterium, archebacterium, bacterial, bactericidal, bactericide, bacteriologist, bacteriology, bacteroid, betaproteobacterium, blue-green bacterium, cyanobacterium, diplobacterium, endobacterium, enterobacterium, epibacterium, eubacterium, green bacterium, halobacterium, Hansen’s bacterium, heliobacterium, iron bacterium, macrobacterium, megabacterium, microbacterium, mirror bacterium, mycobacterium, nanobacterium, nitrobacterium, nylon-eating bacterium, phosphobacterium, photobacterium, phytobacterium, probacterium, purple sulfur bacterium, rhizobacterium, spirobacterium, streptobacterium, sulfur bacterium, sulphur bacterium, ultramicrobacterium, urobacterium- Hypernyms
- prokaryote, microorganism
- Hyponyms
- bacillus, lactobacillus, ascococcus, cryptococcus, cytococcus, diplococcus, echinococcus, enterococcus, gonococcus, meningococcus, micrococcus, ovococcus, pneumococcus, protococcus, spermococcus, spirochete, staphylococcus, streptococcus