cyanobacterium

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek κῠ́ᾰνος (kŭ́ănos)

Ancient Greek -εος (-eos)

Ancient Greek κῠᾰ́νεος (kŭắneos)der.

English cyano-

Ancient Greek βακτηρία (baktēría)

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Ancient Greek -ῐος (-ĭos)?

Ancient Greek -ιον (-ion)

Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion)bor.

New Latin bactēriumbor.

English bacterium

English cyanobacterium

From cyano- + bacterium.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪəɹiəm

Noun

cyanobacterium (plural cyanobacteria)

1. (biology) Any of very many photosynthetic prokaryotic microorganisms, of phylum Cyanobacteria.

   Synonyms: blue-green alga, blue-green bacterium

   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 262:

     At some point in the first billion years of life, cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, learned to tap into a freely available resource – the hydrogen that exists in spectacular abundance in water.

   • 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 91:

     Photosynthesis was established some billion years ago by ancient bacterial precursors of modern cyanobacteria.

Hypernyms

• bacterium

Derived terms

• picocyanobacterium

Translations

prokaryotic microorganism of phylum Cyanobacteria

• Catalan: cianobacteri m
• Czech: sinice (cs) f
• Finnish: syanobakteeri
• French: cyanobactérie (fr) m
• Galician: cianobacteria f
• German: Cyanobacterium n
• Greek: κυανοβακτήριο (el) n (kyanovaktírio)
• Italian: cianobatterio (it) m, cianoficea f
• Polish: sinica (pl) f, cyjanobakteria f
• Portuguese: cianobactéria (pt) f
• Russian: цианобактерия (ru) f (tsianobakteriya)
• Spanish: cianobacteria (es) f
• Thai: สาหร่ายสีเขียวแกมน้ำเงิน (sǎa-ràai-sǐi-kǐao-gɛɛm-nám-ngən)
• Turkish: mavi-yeşil alg, siyanobakteri
• Vietnamese: vi khuẩn lam

See also

• Cyanobacteria