chlamydia
Americannoun
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Microbiology. any coccoid rickettsia of the genus Chlamydia, parasitic in birds and mammals, including humans, and causing various infections, especially of the eyes, as trachoma, lungs, as psittacosis, and genitourinary tract, as urethritis or chlamydia.
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Also called lymphogranuloma venereum. Pathology. a widespread, often asymptomatic sexually transmitted disease caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, a major cause of nongonococcal urethritis in men and pelvic inflammatory disease and ectopic pregnancy in women.
noun
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Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of chlamydia
First recorded in 1945 in an article by Helen Jones, Geoffrey Rake, and Barbara Stearns as the proposed name of a taxon; 1966 in the current sense; from New Latin, from Greek chlamyd- (stem of chlamýs chlamys ) + New Latin -ia -ia
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Example Sentences
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While chlamydia was still the most commonly reported bacterial infection overall, cases had fallen 6% since 2015 to 213,443.
From BBC ● May 21, 2026
And there was: There had been some progress, with oxytetracycline, OTC for short, a powerful antibiotic that is used to treat chlamydia and sometimes syphilis in humans.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
The rates of chlamydia remained about the same in 2023 as the year prior.
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2025
And so even the lucky koalas like Joe Mangy, who dodge death by chlamydia and return to the wild, still must face off against a myriad of other mortal threats.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2024
A veterinary nurse treats a koala infected with chlamydia at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in Currumbin, Australia.Credit...
From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2024
One branch leads to the domain bacteria, which includes the phyla proteobacteria, chlamydias, spirochetes, cyanobacteria, and Gram-positive bacteria.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
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.
