Rickettsia

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of a group of gram-negative bacteria, of the genus Rickettsia, carried as parasites by ticks, fleas and lice, that cause typhus and other diseases.
  2. 2
    any of a group of very small rod-shaped bacteria that live in biting arthropods (as ticks and mites) and cause disease in vertebrate hosts; they cause typhus and other febrile diseases in human beings wordnet
  3. 3
    Any bacterium of the order Rickettsiales. informal

Synonyms

All synonyms
amebicamoebaanaerobebacillusbacteriabug

Example

More examples

"Infectious diseases are caused by prions, viruses, rickettsia, chlamydia, bacteria, pathogenic fungi and protozoa."

Etymology

Borrowed from translingual Rickettsia (genus name), from Howard Taylor Ricketts, equivalent to Ricketts + -ia.

Related phrases

gram negative

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