spirillum
Americannoun
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spirilla
plural
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any of several spirally twisted, aerobic bacteria of the genus Spirillum, certain species of which are pathogenic for humans.
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any of various similar microorganisms.
noun
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spirilla
plural
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Etymology
Origin of spirillum
1870–75; < New Latin, equivalent to Latin spīr ( a ) ( see spire 2) + -illum diminutive suffix
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Example Sentences
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One is a wriggly spirillum, the other a cigar-shaped bacillus.
From Time Magazine Archive
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In typhus there is no characteristic spirillum, and the lesions which are truly characteristic of relapsing fever are totally wanting.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
This spiro-bacterium was first observed in relapsing fever by Obermeier7 in 1873, and has since been identified as a spirillum or spiroechete.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
DEFINITION.—Relapsing fever is an epidemic contagious disease, the specific cause of which is not certainly known, although a peculiar spirillum appears to be constantly present in the blood.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
Then, with his assistant, he put on his white robes, mask, gloves and other precautions for asepsis, setting out the apparatus for the intravenous administration of the drug that would kill the spirillum.
From The Romance of Elaine Sequel to "Exploits of Elaine" by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve
The photographs included cells containing anthrax, typhoid and tubercle bacilli, the spirilla of relapsing fever, specimens from cases of anthrax.
From Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why What Medical Writers Say by Martha Meir Allen
As early as 1873, spirilla were demonstrated in relapsing fever.
From The Evolution of Modern Medicine A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913 by William Osler
Examination of the blood prior to the invasion does not discover any spirilla.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
From carious teeth may be isolated streptothrix, leptothrix, spirilla and fusiform bacilli.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 4 "Diameter" to "Dinarchus" by Various
They consist of cells, single or grouped, which when spherical are called cocci, when rod-shaped, bacilli, when spiral, spirilla.
From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by Austin ?Malley
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.