bacteria

See also Bacteria, and bactéria

English

scanning electron micrograph of E. coli bacteria

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA: /bækˈtɪɻ.i.ə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From New Latin bacteria, plural of bacterium, from Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktērion), neuter diminutive of βακτηρία (baktēria, “rod, stick”).

Noun

bacteria

1. Plural form of bacterium.
2. (US) A type, species, or strain of bacterium
   • 2002, A.C. Panchdhari, Water Supply and Sanitary Installations^[1], edition 2nd ed., ISBN 8122412254, page 177:

     Anaerobic bacteria function in the absence of oxygen, where as aerobic bacteria require sunlight and also oxygen. Both these bacterias are capable of breaking down the organic matter […]

3. (US, proscribed) Alternative form of bacterium.
4. (pejorative, slang) A derisive term for a lowlife or a slob (could be treated as plural or singular).

Usage notes

• This is the plural form of the word. While it is often used as if it were singular (as a collective noun), this is considered nonstandard by some in the US and more elsewhere. See the usage examples under bacterium.

Derived terms

• Bacteria
• Eubacteria
• Archaebacteria / Archebacteria
• eubacteria
• archaebacteria / archebacteria

Translations

see also under bacterium

bacteria

Arabic: بكتيريا (ar) Breton: bakteri (br) (collective noun) bakterienn (br) f. sg. Chinese: 細菌 (cmn), 细菌 (cmn) Danish: bakterie (da) Dutch: bacteriën (nl) Esperanto: bakterioj (eo) Finnish: bakteerikanta (fi) (collective noun), bakteerit (fi) (plural) French: bactéries (fr) f. pl. German: Bakterien (de) Greek: βακτήρια (el) (vaktíria) n. pl. Greenlandic: bakteria (kl) Icelandic: gerlar (is) n. pl., bakteríur (is) n. pl. Indonesian: bakteri (id) Interlingua: bacterios (ia)

Italian: batteri (it) m. pl. Japanese: 細菌 (ja) (さいきん, saikin) Khmer: អាវេត្រាណូ (km) (aaveetraanoo), បាក់តេរី (km) (bakteerii) Korean: 세균 (ko) (segyun), 박테리아 (ko) (bagteria) Lojban: jurme (jbo) Mongolian: нян (mn) (nian) Navajo: chʼosh doo yitʼínii Polish: bakterie (pl) Portuguese: bactérias (pt) Romanian: bacterii (ro) f. pl. Russian: бактерия (ru) (bakteriya) f. Slovak: baktérie (sk) f. pl. Spanish: bacterias (es) Swedish: bakterier (sv) Volapük: bakters (vo)

See also

• culture (collective noun)

Etymology 2

From New Latin bacteria, from Ancient Greek βακτηρία (baktēria, “rod, stick”).

Noun

bacteria (plural bacteriae)

1. (dated, medicine) An oval bacterium, as distinguished from a spherical coccus or rod-shaped bacillus

Anagrams

• race-bait

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Galician

Noun

bacteria f. (plural bacterias)

1. bacterium

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Spanish

Noun

bacteria f. (plural bacterias)

1. bacterium