Word.ws English Dictionary

gram-positive

gram-positive adjective: that is stained violet by Gram's method.

Adjective (1)

gram-positive (not comparable)

  1. That is stained violet by Gram's method

Adjective (2) capitalized: Gram-positive

Gram-positive (not comparable)

  1. That stains dark blue or violet after Gram staining, due to large quantities of peptidoglycan in the cell wall.
    • Generally, ionophore antibiotics are highly effective against Gram-positive bacteria but exhibit little or no activity against Gram-negative bacteria (Chen and Wolin, 1979; Watanabe et al., 1981).1997, T. G. Nagaraja, C. J. Newbold, C. J. Van Nevel, D. I. Demeyer, “13: Manipulation of ruminal fermentation”, in P. N. Hobson, C. S. Stewart, editors, The Rumen Microbial Ecosystem, 2nd edition...
    • Note that L.^([Listeria]) monocytogenes is one of the few Gram-positive bacteria against which vancomycin is not effective — hence the need for ampicillin.2007, Alan R. Hauser, Antibiotic Basics for Clinicians: Choosing the Right Antibacterial Agent, page 201

Forms of gram-positive

alternative formGram-positive
alternative formgram-positive

Origin of gram-positive

From Gram (“a surname”) + positive, after Danish bacteriologist Hans Christian Gram, who invented the Gram staining method.

Questions about gram-positive

What does gram-positive mean?
Gram-positive means that is stained violet by Gram's method.
What part of speech is gram-positive?
Gram-positive is an adjective.

Words near gram-positive in the dictionary

  1. Gram stainings
  2. Gram's method
  3. gram-molecular weight
  4. gram-molecular weights
  5. gram-negative
  6. gram-positive
  7. gram.
  8. grama
  9. gramadoela
  10. gramadoelas
  11. gramadulla

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gram-positive (page history and authors); Gram-positive (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.

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