Standard Lemma guide

bacterium

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɪəɹiəm
  • CMU ARPABET: B AE0 K T IH1 R IY0 AH0 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, microbiology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

(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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bacteria

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: microorganism, micro-organism

Narrower terms: acidophil, acidophile, probiotic, probiotic bacterium, probiotic microflora, probiotic flora, bacteroid, eubacteria, eubacterium, true bacteria, Calymmatobacterium, genus Calymmatobacterium, Francisella, genus Francisella, gonococcus, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Legionella pneumophilia, legionella, nitrobacterium, penicillin-resistant bacteria, pus-forming bacteria, rod, diplococcus, superbug

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek βακτηρία (baktēría) Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Ancient Greek -ῐος (-ĭos)? Ancient Greek -ιον (-ion) Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion)bor. New Latin bactēriumbor. English bacterium From New Latin bactērium, from Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion, “small staff”), from βακτηρία (baktēría).

Across languages

Translations

107 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: bakterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Albanian: bakter — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Arabic: جُرْثُومَة (jurṯūma) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Armenian: բակտերիա (bakteria) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Asturian: bacteria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Azerbaijani: bakteriya — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Belarusian: бактэ́рыя (baktéryja) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Bengali: ব্যাক্টেরিয়া (bêkṭeriẏa) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Bulgarian: бакте́рия (baktérija) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Burmese: ဗက်တီးရီးယား (bakti:ri:ya:) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Carpathian Rusyn: бакте́рія (baktérija) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Catalan: bacteri — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Chinese Cantonese: 細菌 /细菌 (sai3 kwan2) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Chinese: 細菌 /细菌 (zh-min-nan) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Chinese Mandarin: 細菌 /细菌 (xìjūn) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Czech: bakterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Danish: bakterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Dutch: bacterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Esperanto: bakterio — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Estonian: bakter — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Farefare: bakterium — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Finnish: bakteeri — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • French: bactérie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Galician: bacteria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Georgian: ბაქტერია (bakṭeria) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • German: Bakterium — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • German: Bakterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Greek: βακτήριο (vaktírio) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Hebrew: חַיְדַּק \ חידק (khaydák) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Hindi: जीवाणु (jīvāṇu) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Hindi: कीटाणु (kīṭāṇu) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Hungarian: baktérium — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Icelandic: baktería — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Icelandic: gerill — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Indonesian: bakteri — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Indonesian: kuman — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Interlingua: bacterio — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Irish: baictéar — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Italian: batterio — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Japanese: 細菌 (saikin) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Japanese: バクテリア (bakuteria) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Kazakh: бактерия (bakteriä) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Khmer: បាក់តេរី (bakteerii) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Korean: 세균 (segyun) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Korean: 박테리아 (bakteria) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Northern Kurdish: bakterî — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Kyrgyz: бактерия (bakteriya) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Lao: ບັກເຕລີ (bak tē lī) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Lao: ບັກເຕຣີ (bak tē rī) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Lao: ເຊື້ອໂລກ (sư̄a lōk) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Latin: bactērium — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Latvian: baktērija — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Limburgish: bacterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Lithuanian: bakterija — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Macedonian: бактерија (bakterija) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Malay: bakteria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Malay: kuman — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Maltese: baċteria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Māori: huakita — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Marathi: जीवाणू (jīvāṇū) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Mongolian: нян (njan) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Mongolian: бактери (bakteri) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Mongolian: ᠨᠢᠶᠠᠨ (niyan) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Mongolian: ᠪᠠᠻᠲ᠋ᠧᠷᠢ (baktēri) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Norwegian Bokmål: bakterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: bakterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Occitan: bactèri — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Occitan: bacteria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Pashto: باکتري (bākterí) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Pashto: باکتېريا (bākteryā) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Iranian Persian: باکْتِری (bâkteri) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Polish: bakteria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Portuguese: bactéria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Quechua: añaki — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Romanian: bacterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Russian: бакте́рия (baktɛ́rija) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Sanskrit: जीवाणु (jīvāṇu) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Serbo-Croatian: ба̀кте̄рија — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Serbo-Croatian: bàktērija — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Sinhalese: බැක්ටීරියා (bækṭīriyā) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Slovak: baktéria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Slovene: bakterija — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Spanish: bacteria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Swahili: bakteria — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Swedish: bakterie — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Tagalog: ishay — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Tagalog: bakterya — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Tajik: бактерия (bakteriya) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Tamil: நுண்மம் (nuṇmam) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Tamil: நுண்ணுயிரி (nuṇṇuyiri) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Tatar: бактерия (baqteriyä) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Thai: แบคทีเรีย (bɛ̀k-tii-riia) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Thai: บัคเตรี (bàk-dtee-rii) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Thai: บักเตรี (bàk-dtee-rii) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Thai: เชื้อโรค (chʉ́ʉa-rôok) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Turkish: bakteri — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Turkmen: bakteriýa — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Ukrainian: бакте́рія (baktérija) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Urdu: بَیکْٹِیرِیا (baikṭīriyā) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Urdu: جَرْثُومَہ (jarsūma) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Uyghur: باكتېرىيە (baktëriye) — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Uzbek: bakteriya — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Vietnamese: vi khuẩn — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Vietnamese: vi trùng — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Volapük: bakter — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Welsh: bacteriwm — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
  • Yoruba: bakitéríà — single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles
Real reading context

bacterium in complete knowledge articles