Standard Lemma guide

staphylococcus

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.

  • /ˌstæfələˈkɔkəs/
  • /ˌstæfɪləˈkɒkəs/
  • CMU ARPABET: S T AE2 F AH0 L AH0 K AO1 K AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A spherical gram-positive parasitic bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus, causing blisters, septicemia, and other infections.

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

spherical Gram-positive parasitic bacteria that tend to form irregular colonies; some cause boils or septicemia or infections

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: staphylococci, staph

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: coccus, cocci

History

Etymology

Borrowed from translingual Staphylococcus. By surface analysis, staphylo- + -coccus.

Across languages

Translations

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: estafilococ — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Chinese Mandarin: 葡萄球菌 (pútao qiújūn) — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Finnish: stafylokokki — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • French: staphylocoque — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Galician: estafilococo — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Greek: σταφυλόκοκκος (stafylókokkos) — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Italian: stafilococco — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Japanese: 葡萄球菌 (budōkyūkin) — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Korean: 포도상구균 (podosanggugyun) — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Persian: استافیلوکوک (estâfilokok) — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Polish: gronkowiec — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Portuguese: estafilococo — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Romanian: stafilococ — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Russian: стафилоко́кк (stafilokókk) — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Spanish: estafilococo — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Swedish: stafylokock — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Tagalog: estapilokoko — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus
  • Turkish: stafilokok — bacterium of the genus Staphylococcus