bacillus
Americannoun
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any rod-shaped or cylindrical bacterium of the genus Bacillus, comprising spore-producing bacteria.
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(formerly) any bacterium.
noun
Etymology
Origin of bacillus
1880–85; < Late Latin, variant of Latin bacillum (diminutive of baculum ) staff, walking stick
Vocabulary lists containing bacillus
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The Plague,” the suddenly timely and widely reread Albert Camus novel, is about the random executions carried out by the bubonic plague bacillus, which only makes manifest the inherent precariousness of human existence.
From Washington Post • Aug. 28, 2020
From that point, Kinyoun was at war with more than a bacillus.
From Nature • Apr. 23, 2019
And in this particular race the winner will probably turn out to be the TB bacillus.
From The Guardian • Jun. 29, 2012
Black rats carried fleas that were infested with a bacillus called Yersinia pestis.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012
The present comparative rarity of tuberculosis results in large measure from the fact that the average person now seldom comes into contact with the tubercle bacillus.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
