-coccal

1. a combining form of adjectives corresponding to nouns formed with -coccus:

   streptococcal.

Example Sentences

The granules of eosinophile cells are well stained and coccal-shaped, the nucleus is often ring shaped.

From Project Gutenberg

The eosinophile cells contain large deeply staining coccal-shaped granules.

From Project Gutenberg

The nucleus of the eosinophile cell is ring-shaped or much divided, and the granules are coccal and stain oxyphile.

From Project Gutenberg

The polymorphonuclear leucocytes have only a few very minute coccal-shaped oxyphile granules, the nucleus is polymorphous.

From Project Gutenberg

The basophile granules of the "mast" cells are coccal-shaped, of various size—often quite powdery.

From Project Gutenberg

Words That Use -coccal

What does -coccal mean?

The combining form –coccal is used like a suffix meaning “pertaining to a coccus.” Coccus is a scientific term with two meanings. In terms from bacteriology, it means “spherical bacterium.” In terms from botany, it refers to the mericarp, one segment of a schizocarp, a kind of fruit.

The form –coccal comes from a combination of two forms. The first is –coccus, from Greek kókkos, meaning “grain, seed, or berry.” The second is the suffix –al, from Latin –ālis, meaning “of the kind of, pertaining to, having the form or character of.”

What are variants of –coccal?

While –coccal doesn’t have any variants, it is related to the form –coccus, as in streptococcus. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use article for –coccus.

Examples of -coccal

An example of a word you may have encountered that features –coccal is streptococcal, adjective form of streptococcus, a type of bacteria that can cause such illnesses as scarlet fever, strep throat, and tonsillitis.

Strepto– means “twisted,” from Greek streptós, while the form –coccal means “pertaining to a coccus.” Streptococcal literally translates to “pertaining to a twisted coccus.”

What are some words that use the combining form –coccal?

• cryptococcal meningitis
• diplococcal
• echinococcal
• meningococcal
• micrococcal
• pneumococcal

What are some other forms that –coccal may be commonly confused with?

• -coel
• -colous

Break it down!

The combining form micro– means “small.” With this in mind, what does micrococcal literally mean?