Word.ws English Dictionary

pilus

Syllables: pi·lus/ˈpaɪ̯.ləs/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈpɑe̯.ləs/

pilus noun: a hair.

Noun

pilus (plural pili)

  1. A hair.
  2. A hairlike appendage found on the cell surface of many bacteria.
    Synonyms:
    fimbria
  3. A bacterial protein that has several biochemical functions.

Synonyms of pilus

Forms of pilus

pluralpili

Origin of pilus

Learned borrowing from Latin pilus (“hair”). Doublet of pile.

Words formed from pilus

Words that rhyme with pilus

Questions about pilus

What does pilus mean?
Pilus means a hair.
What part of speech is pilus?
Pilus is a noun.
How do you pronounce pilus?
Pilus is pronounced /ˈpaɪ̯.ləs/ (UK).
What is the plural of pilus?
The plural of pilus is pili.

Words near pilus in the dictionary

  1. pilumnids
  2. Pilumnus
  3. pilums
  4. pilung
  5. pilungs
  6. pilus
  7. pily
  8. PIM
  9. pima
  10. Pima Bajo
  11. Pima County

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pilus (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pilus.wav.

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