bacillus

[buh-sil-uhs]

noun

plural

bacilli 

1. any rod-shaped or cylindrical bacterium of the genus Bacillus, comprising spore-producing bacteria.

2. (formerly) any bacterium.

bacillus

/ bəˈsɪləs /

noun

1. any rod-shaped bacterium, such as a clostridium bacterium Compare coccus spirillum

2. any of various rodlike spore-producing bacteria constituting the family Bacillaceae , esp of the genus Bacillus

bacillus

plural

bacilli 

1. Any of various pathogenic bacteria, especially one that is rod-shaped.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bacillus¹

1880–85; < Late Latin, variant of Latin bacillum (diminutive of baculum ) staff, walking stick

Word History and Origins

Origin of bacillus¹

C19: from Latin: a small staff, from baculum walking stick

Example Sentences

While waiting or serving his sentence, he’d probably get infected with TB—it was estimated that 80 percent of all Russian prisoners had bacilli in their bodies.

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Swabs from the skin, nose and mouth, as well as saliva and stool samples, showed that 34 percent of all participants had antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as resistant Gram-negative bacilli or vancomycin-resistant enterococci.

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Scientists postulate that the bacillus originated in some lower animal and jumped to humans.

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But tuberculosis is also curable and preventable, caused by a bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and spread when people who are sick expel bacteria into the air, usually by coughing.

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Koch complied with a vial swarming with cholera bacilli.

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Related Words

• ailment 
• disease 
• germ 
• illness 
• infection 
• microbe 
• microorganism 
• pathogen 
• sickness