bacterial

American  

[bak-teer-ee-uhl] / bækˈtɪər i əl /

adjective

1. caused by or relating to bacteria.

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Explanation

If your illness is caused by bacteria, you can describe it as bacterial. For example, a lung infection that results from being exposed to bacteria is called bacterial pneumonia. Some infections and illnesses are caused by viruses, and they're called viral. Other kinds occur when your immune system is invaded by microorganisms called bacteria, and these are bacterial. You're most likely to hear the adjective bacterial when you're sick. The root word, bakterion, is Greek for "small staff or rod." Bacterial organisms were named this way in the 1830's because the first bacteria observed through a microscope were rod-shaped.

Example Sentences

Cholera, a dangerous bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea and can be fatal without treatment, may be significantly reduced through diet.

From Science Daily • Apr. 7, 2026

According to Public Health Wales, Staph infection is a bacterial infection caused by staphylococcus - a germ that lives in the nose of one in three people.

From BBC • Mar. 28, 2026

However, cases of bacterial meningitis do not normally happen like this.

From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026

Future research will focus on how specific bacterial proteins interact with human cells in different tissues and disease settings.

From Science Daily • Mar. 27, 2026

How could heat-killed bacterial debris—no more than a lukewarm soup of microbial chemicals—have transmitted a genetic trait to a live bacterium by mere contact?

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee