First recorded in 1985–90; from New Latin, from Greek archaîa, neuter plural of archaîos “ancient”; see origin at archaeo- ( def. )
First recorded in 1990–95; from New Latin; see origin at archaea ( def. )
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
According to the researchers, the broader implication of their findings is that bacteria and archaea did not make the transition to independent cellular life together.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
Alongside microorganisms commonly found on human skin, the team identified fungi and salt-adapted archaea.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
These tiny organisms form the base of the marine food chain, meaning the activity of ammonia-oxidizing archaea ultimately helps sustain ocean biodiversity.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 11, 2026
By comparing genetic similarities and differences, they built an expanded Asgard archaea tree of life.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2026
"These Asgard archaea are often missed by low-coverage sequencing," said co-author Kathryn Appler, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2026
She has put BP’s U.S. biogas business Archaea up for sale just days after doing the same for its U.K.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
BP completed its purchase of Archaea in December 2022 during a time when it was trying to transition to more renewable energy sources.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
The company, which employs nearly 14,000 people in the UK, confirmed plans to move further away from clean energy, revealing plans to sell off its US renewable natural gas business Archaea.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
For years, scientists have known that many Archaea can produce pyrrolysine, giving them 21 amino acids to work with instead of the usual 20.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 28, 2026
The earth’s history is divided into four eons, the Pre-Archean, Archaea, Proteozoic, Phanerozoic.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
It's commonly understood that the first eukaryotic cells resulted from the fusion of an early form of bacteria with an archaeon, a single-celled organism similar to a bacterium.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2023
In every place, copies of the Borg co-occurred with DNA linked to a methane-oxidizing archaeon called Methanoperedens.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 15, 2021
He is part of a team that spent a decade trying to determine the physical shape of a particular protein in a tiny bacteria-like organism called an archaeon.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2020
The archaeon Sulfolobus tokodaii, by contrast, dedicates 1% of its genome to its 5 CRISPR–Cas systems, including 458 spacers.
From Nature ● Jan. 11, 2017
Mitochondrial merger Eukaryotes have a number of innovations compared to their more primitive archaeon ancestors.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 30, 2015
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