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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Untreated chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 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
A vaccine which could save Australia's endangered koala population from a rampant chlamydia epidemic has been approved for rollout for the first time.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2025
In June 2024, the CDC officially recommended doxy PEP for men who have sex with men and transgender women to treat syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea.
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2025
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.
