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Bacterium   Listen
noun
Bacterium  n.  (pl. bacteria)  (Biol.) A microscopic single-celled organism having no distinguishable nucleus, belonging to the kingdom Monera. Bacteria have varying shapes, usually taking the form of a jointed rodlike filament, or a small sphere, but also in certain cases having a branched form. Bacteria are destitute of chlorophyll, but in those members of the phylum Cyanophyta (the blue-green algae) other light-absorbing pigments are present. They are the smallest of microscopic organisms which have their own metabolic processes carried on within cell membranes, viruses being smaller but not capable of living freely. The bacteria are very widely diffused in nature, and multiply with marvelous rapidity, both by fission and by spores. Bacteria may require oxygen for their energy-producing metabolism, and these are called aerobes; or may multiply in the absence of oxygen, these forms being anaerobes. Certain species are active agents in fermentation, while others appear to be the cause of certain infectious diseases. The branch of science with studies bacteria is bacteriology, being a division of microbiology. See Bacillus.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Bacterium" Quotes from Famous Books



... fluid or soil becomes so exhausted of its needed constituents, by the immense number of plants living in it, that it is unfit for their life and development. Then this particular form will no longer thrive; but some other form of bacterium may find in it the properties required for functional activity, and may grow vigorously. It is probable that exhaustion or absence of proper soil is an important agent in protecting man from sickness due to ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 810, July 11, 1891 • Various
... of carbolic acid to be fatal to bacteria. He was quite aware of the importance of distinguishing between the action of the substances on various kinds of bacteria, and was quite prepared to admit that a treatment which would be fatal to one kind of bacterium might not ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 288 - July 9, 1881 • Various
... is in their mode of multiplication by fission. The former is in every way like a bacterium in its mode of self-division. It divides, acquiring for each half a flagellum in division, and then, in its highest vigor, in about four minutes, each ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888 • Various


Words linked to "Bacterium" :   Legionella pneumophilia, probiotic bacterium, pus-forming bacteria, probiotic flora, acidophil, rod, acidophile, eubacterium, bacterial, genus Francisella, true bacteria, bacterize, nitrite bacterium, Calymmatobacterium, microphage, bioremediation, gonococcus, immune reaction, legionella, bacterise, ratbite fever bacterium, resistance, bacteria, bacteroid, immunologic response, diplococcus, Gram-positive, Francisella, micro-organism, genus Calymmatobacterium, penicillin-resistant bacteria, nitrobacterium, microbiology, probiotic, eubacteria, nitrate bacterium, immune response, superbug, microorganism, peritrichous, Gram-negative, nitric bacterium


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