SPIRILLUM (spirilla)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: spirilla   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spirillum mean? 

• SPIRILLUM (noun)
  The noun SPIRILLUM has 2 senses:

1. spirally twisted elongate rodlike bacteria usually living in stagnant water

2. any flagellated aerobic bacteria having a spirally twisted rodlike form

  Familiarity information: SPIRILLUM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPIRILLUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spirally twisted elongate rodlike bacteria usually living in stagnant water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("spirillum" is a kind of...):

eubacteria; eubacterium; true bacteria (a large group of bacteria having rigid cell walls; motile types have flagella)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spirillum"):

ratbite fever bacterium; Spirillum minus (a bacterium causing ratbite fever)

Holonyms ("spirillum" is a member of...):

genus Spirillum (a genus of bacteria)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any flagellated aerobic bacteria having a spirally twisted rodlike form

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

spirilla; spirillum

Hypernyms ("spirillum" is a kind of...):

eubacteria; eubacterium; true bacteria (a large group of bacteria having rigid cell walls; motile types have flagella)