What does "mycoplasma" mean?

Any infectious bacterium of the genus Mycoplasma, often specifically Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Mycoplasma

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any infectious bacterium of the genus Mycoplasma, often specifically Mycoplasma pneumoniae countable, uncountable
"Officials are investigating whether the illness was caused by mycoplasma, a common bacteria known as walking pneumonia."
2
any of a group of small parasitic bacteria that lack cell walls and can survive without oxygen; can cause pneumonia and urinary tract infection wordnet

"Officials are investigating whether the illness was caused by mycoplasma, a common bacteria known as walking pneumonia."

From translingual Mycoplasma, from Latin, from Ancient Greek μύκης (múkēs, “fungus”) + πλάσμα (plásma, “-shaped”). Equivalent to myco- + plasma.

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