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Escherichia coli

American  
[esh-uh-rik-ee-uh koh-lahy] / ˌɛʃ əˈrɪk i ə ˈkoʊ laɪ /

noun

Bacteriology.
  1. E. coli.


Etymology

Origin of Escherichia coli

From New Latin; named after Theodor Escherich (died 1911), German physician + coli, genitive singular of Latin colon “large intestine,” used as a specific epithet for Escherichia; see -ia colon 2


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.

See Examples For:

The microbe used by Stephen Wallace, professor of chemical biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, was Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025

Water quality samples collected near the Camp Richardson Resort revealed elevated levels of Escherichia coli, commonly known as E. coli, according to the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2025

The first stage was to establish a quality dataset of interactions between 403 diverse Escherichia coli strains and 96 phages.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2024

They found 79 disrupted bacterial membranes and 63 specifically targeted antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2024

One of the new compounds, lolamicin, selectively targeted some "laboratory strains of gram-negative pathogens including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter cloacae," the researchers found.

From Science Daily ● May 29, 2024

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