Library / English Dictionary

RICKETTSIA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: rickettsiae   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of a group of very small rod-shaped bacteria that live in biting arthropods (as ticks and mites) and cause disease in vertebrate hosts; they cause typhus and other febrile diseases in human beings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

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

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

family Rickettsiaceae; Rickettsiaceae (microorganism resembling bacteria inhabiting arthropod tissues but capable of causing disease in vertebrates)

Derivation:

rickettsial (relating to or caused by rickettsias)

Credits