Standard Lemma guide
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.
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noun
Any of the several genera of bacteria in soil that take part in the nitrogen cycle, oxidizing ammonium and organic nitrogen compounds to the more soluble nitrite and nitrate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
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
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: bacteria, bacterium
Narrower terms: nitrate bacterium, nitric bacterium, nitrite bacterium, nitrous bacterium
History
Etymology tree Egyptian nṯr Proto-Afroasiatic *-i? Egyptian -j Egyptian nṯrjder. Semiticbor. Ancient Greek νῐ́τρον (nĭ́tron) English nitro- 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 English nitrobacterium From nitro- + bacterium.
Across languages
3 source translations are retained for this English entry.
