Standard Lemma guide

coccus

noun · 3 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.

  • /ˈkɒ.kəs/
  • US: [ˈkhɑkəs]
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • homophone: caucus (cot–caught merger)
  • CMU ARPABET: K AA1 K AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any approximately spherical bacterium.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

One of the carpels or seed-vessels of a dry fruit.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: coque

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

any spherical or nearly spherical bacteria

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cocci

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: eubacteria, eubacterium, true bacteria

Narrower terms: staphylococcus, staphylococci, staph

History

Etymology

From New Latin, from Latin coccum, from Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos, “grain, seed”).

Across languages

Translations

23 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: кока (koka) — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Catalan: coc — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Chinese Mandarin: 球菌 (qiújūn) — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Czech: kok — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Dutch: coccus — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Finnish: kokki — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Finnish: pallobakteeri — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • French: coccus — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Georgian: კოკი (ḳoḳi) — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • German: Kokke — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • German: Kokkus — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Hindi: गोलाणु (golāṇu) — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Italian: cocco — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Japanese: 球菌 (kyūkin) — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Korean: 구균 (gugyun) — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Polish: ziarniak — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Portuguese: coco — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Romanian: coc — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Russian: кокк (kokk) — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Spanish: coco — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Swedish: kock — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Tagalog: bilugishay — a bacterium of spherical shape
  • Vietnamese: cầu khuẩn — a bacterium of spherical shape