bacterium

/bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/

bacterium noun: a single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.

Image: This vector image is completely made by Ali Zifan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

bacterium (plural bacteria or (uncommon, possibly nonstandard) bacteriums)

A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.
- Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 14 Aug 2020

bacterium meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

bacterium in Hindi

single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles: जीवाणु jīvāṇu, कीटाणु kīṭāṇu

bacterium in Tamil

single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles: நுண்மம் nuṇmam, நுண்ணுயிரி nuṇṇuyiri

bacterium in Marathi

single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles: जीवाणू jīvāṇū

bacterium in Urdu

single-celled organism with no nucleus or organelles: بَیکْٹِیرِیا baikṭīriyā, جَرْثُومَہ jarsūma

More languagesFewer languages

bacterium in Bengali: ব্যাক্টেরিয়া bêkṭeriẏa
bacterium in Malayalam: ബാക്ടീരിയ bākṭīriya
bacterium in Kannada: ಏಕಾಣುಜೀವಿ
bacterium in Sanskrit: जीवाणु jīvāṇu
bacterium in Sinhala: බැක්ටීරියා bækṭīriyā
bacterium in Assamese: জীৱাণু ziwanu
bacterium in Pashto: باکتري bākterí, باکتېريا bākteryā
bacterium in Tagalog: ishay, bakterya
bacterium in Arabic: جُرْثُومَة jurṯūma
bacterium in Malay: bakteria, kuman
bacterium in Indonesian: bakteri, kuman
bacterium in Thai: แบคทีเรีย bɛ̀k-tii-riia, บัคเตรี bàk-dtee-rii, บักเตรี bàk-dtee-rii, เชื้อโรค chʉ́ʉa-rôok
bacterium in Vietnamese: vi khuẩn, vi trùng
bacterium in Myanmar: ဗက်တီးရီးယား bakti:ri:ya:

Examples of bacterium in a sentence

The typhoid bacillus and cholera bacterium are semiparasitic.
In this process, one bacterium designated the male bacterium transfers its DNA into the female bacterium.
Listeria is a food poisoning bacterium that is psychrotrophic – in other words it likes cold temperatures.

All 16 example sentences with bacterium

Forms of bacterium

plural	bacteria
plural possibly uncommon (nonstandard)	bacteriums

Plural of bacterium: bacteria

Origin of bacterium

From New Latin bactērium, from Ancient Greek βακτήριον (baktḗrion, “small staff”), from βακτηρία (baktēría).

Phrases with bacterium

Words that rhyme with bacterium

7 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bacterium

What does bacterium mean?: Bacterium means a single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.
What is bacterium in Hindi?: Bacterium in Hindi is जीवाणु (jīvāṇu), कीटाणु (kīṭāṇu). See Bacterium meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is bacterium?: Bacterium is a noun.
How do you pronounce bacterium?: Bacterium is pronounced /bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəm/.
What is the plural of bacterium?: The plural of bacterium is bacteria.

Words near bacterium in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: bacterium (page history and authors); ബാക്ടീരിയ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); bacterium (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); জীৱাণু (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-bacterium.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bacterium.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bacterium. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.