noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any of the several genera of bacteria in soil that take part in the nitrogen cycle, oxidizing ammonium and organic nitrogen compounds to the more soluble nitrite and nitrate.
2. 2
   any of the bacteria in the soil that take part in the nitrogen cycle; they oxidize ammonium compounds into nitrites or oxidize nitrites into nitrates wordnet

Etymology

From nitro- + bacterium.

Related phrases

nitrogen cycle

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