BACTERIA

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bacteria mean? 

• BACTERIA (noun)
  The noun BACTERIA has 1 sense:

1. (microbiology) single-celled or noncellular spherical or spiral or rod-shaped organisms lacking chlorophyll that reproduce by fission; important as pathogens and for biochemical properties; taxonomy is difficult; often considered to be plants

  Familiarity information: BACTERIA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BACTERIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(microbiology) single-celled or noncellular spherical or spiral or rod-shaped organisms lacking chlorophyll that reproduce by fission; important as pathogens and for biochemical properties; taxonomy is difficult; often considered to be plants

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

bacteria; bacterium

Hypernyms ("bacteria" is a kind of...):

micro-organism; microorganism (any organism of microscopic size)

Domain category:

microbiology (the branch of biology that studies microorganisms and their effects on humans)

Domain member category:

immune reaction; immune response; immunologic response (a bodily defense reaction that recognizes an invading substance (an antigen: such as a virus or fungus or bacteria or transplanted organ) and produces antibodies specific against that antigen)

Gram-positive ((of bacteria) being or relating to a bacterium that retains the violet stain used in Gram's method)

peritrichous (covered all over with uniformly distributed flagella)

Gram-negative ((of bacteria) being of or relating to a bacterium that does not retain the violet stain used in Gram's method)

microphage (a neutrophil that ingests small things (as bacteria))

resistance (the degree of unresponsiveness of a disease-causing microorganism to antibiotics or other drugs (as in penicillin-resistant bacteria))

bioremediation (the act of treating waste or pollutants by the use of microorganisms (as bacteria) that can break down the undesirable substances)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bacteria"):

acidophil; acidophile (an organism that thrives in a relatively acid environment)

probiotic; probiotic bacterium; probiotic flora; probiotic microflora (a beneficial bacterium found in the intestinal tract of healthy mammals; often considered to be a plant)

bacteroid (a rodlike bacterium (especially any of the rod-shaped or branched bacteria in the root nodules of nitrogen-fixing plants))

eubacteria; eubacterium; true bacteria (a large group of bacteria having rigid cell walls; motile types have flagella)

Calymmatobacterium; genus Calymmatobacterium (a genus of bacterial rods containing only the one species that causes granuloma inguinale)

Francisella; genus Francisella (a genus of Gram-negative aerobic bacteria that occur as pathogens and parasite in many animals (including humans))

gonococcus; Neisseria gonorrhoeae (the pus-producing bacterium that causes gonorrhea)

legionella; Legionella pneumophilia (the motile aerobic rod-shaped Gram-negative bacterium that thrives in central heating and air conditioning systems and can cause Legionnaires' disease)

nitrobacterium (any of the bacteria in the soil that take part in the nitrogen cycle; they oxidize ammonium compounds into nitrites or oxidize nitrites into nitrates)

penicillin-resistant bacteria (bacteria that are unaffected by penicillin)

pus-forming bacteria (bacteria that produce pus)

rod (any rod-shaped bacterium)

diplococcus (Gram-positive bacteria usually occurring in pairs)

superbug (a strain of bacteria that is resistant to all antibiotics)

Derivation:

bacterial (relating to or caused by bacteria)

 Context examples 

This bacteria is nonmotile, oxidase negative, nonhemolytic and does not reduce nitrates.

(Acinetobacter johnsonii, NCI Thesaurus)

This bacteria is nonmotile, oxidase negative, catalase positive, gelatinase negative and can carry out glucose, galactose, mannose and xylose oxidation.

(Acinetobacter haemolyticus, NCI Thesaurus)

This bacteria is nonmotile and oxidase negative.

(Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, NCI Thesaurus)

This bacteria is oxidase negative, catalase positive, does not reduce nitrates, nonhemolytic and is beta xyloxidase negative.

(Acinetobacter junii, NCI Thesaurus)

This bacteria is nonmotile, oxidase negative, catalase positive and does not produce acid from galactose, mannose, rhamnose or lactose.

(Acinetobacter lwoffii, NCI Thesaurus)

This bacteria is nonmotile, non spore forming, catalase positive, oxidase and urease negative, highly resistant to gamma ray irradiation and hydrolyzes Tween 80.

(Acinetobacter radioresistens, NCI Thesaurus)

This bacteria is nonmotile, oxidase negative, catalase positive and produces acid from glucose.

(Acinetobacter anitratus, NCI Thesaurus)

A genus of bacteria within the phylum Proteobacteria consisting of strictly aerobic nonfermentative gram-negative bacilli.

(Acinetobacter, NCI Thesaurus)

Any bacteria that is not assigned to the species level but can be assigned to the Acidaminococcus genus level.

(Acidaminococcus, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

This bacteria is motile by flagella, urease negative, oxidase and catalase positive, ferments glucose, and hydrolyzes esculin.

(Achromobacter xylosoxidans, NCI Thesaurus)