bacillus

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any rod-shaped bacterium

   The microscope revealed a slender bacillus among the round bacterial cells.

2. 2
   noun

   a bacterium of the genus Bacillus, whose members are typically aerobic and form resistant spores

   The laboratory identified the organism as a Bacillus capable of forming spores.

A learned borrowing from Latin bacillus ("little staff or wand"), a diminutive of baculum ("stick, staff"). Microbiologists applied the word to rod-shaped bacteria because their cells resemble tiny rods. The taxonomic genus Bacillus retains a capital letter.

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