Bacillus

//bæˈsɪl.əs// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various rod-shaped, spore-forming aerobic bacteria in the genus Bacillus, some of which cause disease.

    "'This again,' said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, 'is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera - the cholera germ.'"

  2. 2
    aerobic rod-shaped spore-producing bacterium; often occurring in chainlike formations; found primarily in soil wordnet
  3. 3
    Any bacilliform (rod-shaped) bacterium.
  4. 4
    Something which spreads like bacterial infection. broadly, figuratively

    "The “bacillus of boom or depression,” he wrote, travels freely “from country to country.”"

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin bacillus (“little staff, wand”), diminutive of baculum (“stick, staff, walking stick”).

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