coccus

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a bacterium with a spherical or roughly spherical shape

   Under the microscope, each coccus appeared as a small round cell.

2. 2
   noun

   historical zoology: a scale insect or cochineal-like plant-feeding insect

   The ants climbed the fir tree in search of aphids and cocci feeding on its sap.

3. 3
   noun

   botany: one of the one-seeded sections into which certain dry fruits divide

   At maturity, the dry fruit split into separate cocci around the central axis.

From New Latin coccus and Greek kokkos, 'grain, seed, or berry.' The rounded-grain image produced the microbiological and botanical senses; older entomology also used Coccus and cocci for scale and cochineal insects.

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