bacterium

English

3D diagram of a bacterium

Shapes of bacteria

Etymology

From New Latin bactērium, from Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion, “small staff”), from βακτηρία (baktēría).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

bacterium (plural bacteria)

1. (microbiology) A single celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.
   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     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.

Usage notes

• In most formal writing, bacterium is the singular form of the noun, and bacteria the plural form. This is in accord with the word's Latin etymology. However, in ordinary speech, some speakers use bacteria as a singular, with plural either bacteria or bacterias. This is usually considered nonstandard.

Hypernyms

• prokaryote

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:bacterium

Derived terms

• eubacterium
• archaebacterium / archebacterium
• urobacterium
• bacterial

Translations

single celled organism with no nucleus or organelles

• Afrikaans: bakterie (af) f
• Albanian: bakter (sq)
• Arabic: جُرْثُومَة‎ (ar) f (jurṯūma)
• Armenian: բակտերիա (hy) (bakteria)
• Azerbaijani: bakteriya (az)
• Belarusian: бактэ́рыя f (baktéryja)
• Bengali: ব্যাক্টেরিয়া (bjakṭeriẏa)
• Bulgarian: бакте́рия (bg) f (baktérija)
• Burmese: ဗက်တီးရီးယား (my) (bakti:ri:ya:)
• Catalan: bacteri (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 細菌, 细菌 (sai³ kwan²)

  Mandarin: 細菌 (zh), 细菌 (zh) (xìjūn)

  Min Nan: 細菌 (zh-min-nan), 细菌 (sè-khún, suè-khún)

• Czech: bakterie (cs) f
• Danish: bakterie (da)
• Dutch: bacterie (nl) f
• Esperanto: bakterio
• Estonian: bakter (et)
• Finnish: bakteeri (fi)
• French: bactérie (fr) f
• Galician: bacteria (gl) f
• Georgian: ბაქტერია (bakṭeria)
• German: Bakterium (de) n, Bakterie (de) f
• Greek: βακτήριο (el) n (vaktírio)
• Hebrew: חַיְדַּק \ חידק‎ (he) m (khaydák)
• Hindi: जीवाणु (hi) (jīvāṇu), कीटाणु (hi) m (kīṭāṇu), बैक्टीरिया m (baikṭīriyā)
• Hungarian: baktérium (hu)
• Icelandic: baktería (is) f, gerill (is) m
• Italian: batterio (it) m
• Japanese: 細菌 (ja) (さいきん, saikin), バクテリア (bakuteria)
• Kazakh: бактерия (bakterïya)
• Khmer: បាក់តេរី (km) (bakteerii)
• Korean: 세균 (ko) (segyun) (細菌 (ko)), 박테리아 (ko) (bakteria)
• Kyrgyz: бактерия (bakteriya)
• Lao: ບັກເຕຣີ (lo) (bak tē rī)
• Latin: bactērium n

• Latvian: baktērija f
• Lithuanian: bakterija f
• Macedonian: бактерија f (bakterija)
• Malay: bakteria (ms), kuman
• Maori: huakita
• Mongolian: нян (mn) (nyan), бактери (mn) (bakteri)
• Norwegian: bakterie (no) m
• Occitan: bactèri (oc) m, bacteria (oc) f
• Pashto: باکتري‎ f (bākterí), باکتېريا‎ f (bākteryā)
• Persian: باکتری‎ (fa) (bâkteri)
• Polish: bakteria (pl) f
• Portuguese: bactéria (pt) f
• Quechua: añaki (qu)
• Romanian: bacterie (ro) f
• Russian: бакте́рия (ru) f (baktɛ́rija)
• Sanskrit: जीवाणु m (jīvāṇu)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ба̀кте̄рија f

  Roman: bàktērija (sh) f

• Slovak: baktéria (sk) f
• Slovene: bakterija (sl) f
• Spanish: bacteria (es) f
• Swahili: bakteria
• Swedish: bakterie (sv) c
• Tagalog: ishay
• Tajik: бактерия (tg) (bakteriya)
• Thai: แบคทีเรีย (th) (bɛ̀k-tii-riia), บัคเตรี (th) (bàk-dtee-rii), บักเตรี (th) (bàk-dtee-rii)
• Turkish: bakteri (tr)
• Turkmen: bakteria
• Ukrainian: бакте́рія (uk) f (baktérija)
• Urdu: بیکٹیریا‎ m (baikṭīriyā)
• Uyghur: باكتېرىيە‎ (baktëriye)
• Uzbek: bakteriya (uz)
• Vietnamese: vi khuẩn (vi) (微菌)
• Volapük: bakter

Further reading

• bacterium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

See also

• bacillus

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion, “small staff”), from βακτηρία (baktēría).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /bakˈteː.ri.um/, [bäkˈt̪eːɾiʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /bakˈte.ri.um/, [bɑkˈt̪ɛːɾium]

Noun

bactērium n (genitive bactēriī or bactērī); second declension

1. (microbiology) bacterium

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	bactērium	bactēria
Genitive	bactēriī bactērī1	bactēriōrum
Dative	bactēriō	bactēriīs
Accusative	bactērium	bactēria
Ablative	bactēriō	bactēriīs
Vocative	bactērium	bactēria

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

References

• bacterium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)