rickettsia
Americannoun
plural
rickettsiae, rickettsias-
any member of the genus Rickettsia, comprising rod-shaped to coccoid microorganisms that resemble bacteria but can be as small as a large virus and reproduce only inside a living cell, parasitic in fleas, ticks, lice, and mites and transmitted by bite to vertebrate hosts, including humans, causing such severe diseases as typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
-
any rickettsia or rickettsialike microorganism of the orders Rickettsiales and Chlamydiales.
noun
Other Word Forms
- rickettsial adjective
Etymology
Origin of rickettsia
1915–20; < New Latin, after Howard T. Ricketts (1871–1910), U.S. pathologist; -ia
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.
Infectious diseases caused by rickettsia bacteria, especially those transmitted by fleas, lice, or mites.
From Mother's Remedies Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers of the United States and Canada by Ritter, Thomas Jefferson
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.