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bacillus

Pronunciation: /bæˈsɪl.əs/

The English word “bacillus” has 3 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Any of various rod-shaped, spore-forming aerobic bacteria in the genus Bacillus, some of which cause disease.
  2. Any bacilliform (rod-shaped) bacterium.
  3. Something which spreads like bacterial infection.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin bacillus (“little staff, wand”), diminutive of baculum (“stick, staff, walking stick”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.