Coli

//ˈkoʊ.laɪ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Escherichia coli, a Gram-negative bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. attributive, often

    "Five of the strains of E. coli are related to only one of the S. dysenteriae strains. Three of the coli are related to two of the strains of S. dysenteriae, four are related to three of the S. dysenteriae strains, and one, A-H6, is related to all."

Synonyms

All synonyms
colibacillus

Example

More examples

"If the Bacterium coli normal to the intestine escapes into the peritoneal cavity, or passes into the bladder, a severe peritonitis or cystitis, respectively, is apt to result."

Etymology

Ellipsis of Bacterium coli or Bacillus coli, obsolete taxonomic names of the species (now called Escherichia coli). The word itself derives from Latin colī, genitive of colon (“colon, large intestine”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.