bacterial
Americanadjective
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.
Vocabulary lists containing bacterial
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -al, -ial
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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.
Depending on whether OC 12 is present and whether the transistor has been activated, the bacterial cell produces an output molecule called OHC 14.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
To assemble the circuits, the researchers printed bacterial colonies onto plates containing agar, which serves as a growth medium.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
The images showed the archaeon and bacterium physically connected by bacterial nanotubes.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
King Harald V of Norway's health has worsened, the palace has said, as he remains in hospital receiving antibiotics for a bacterial infection in his bloodstream.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
This classic example of bacterial control has a long history of use in the eastern part of the United States, as I have pointed out in Chapter 7.
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.
