Meaning & use
bacteria
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Meaning
nounpluralbiology
Very small living things, each made of one cell, that can be found almost everywhere and can cause disease or be helpful.
Grammar: Bacteria is plural; use a plural verb: bacteria are. The singular is bacterium.
Patterns
- bacteria in something
- harmful bacteria
- beneficial bacteria
Some bacteria in the gut help us digest food.
Harmful bacteria can cause food poisoning.
The lab studies how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.
Word forms
| singular | bacterium |
|---|
Common combinations
- harmful bacteria
- Harmful bacteria can grow quickly in warm food.
- beneficial bacteria
- Beneficial bacteria are used to make yogurt.
- bacteria grow
- Bacteria grow faster in moist conditions.
- kill bacteria
- Antibiotics kill bacteria but not viruses.
Synonyms and how they differ
- germs
- Germs is a nontechnical word for microorganisms that cause disease; bacteria is the scientific term.
- microbes
- Microbes is a broader term that includes bacteria, viruses, and other tiny organisms.
Word family
- bacterial adjective
- Relating to or caused by bacteria.
- bacterium noun
- The singular form, meaning one such organism.
- bacteriology noun
- The scientific study of bacteria.
Commonly confused: bacteria or virus?
bacteria vs virus
Viruses are much smaller than bacteria and cannot be killed by antibiotics; they cause different diseases.
Practice
Which sentence is grammatically correct?
Choose one answer.
Bacteria is a plural noun, so it takes a plural verb: 'bacteria are.' 'Bacteria is' is wrong because it treats the plural as singular. 'Bacterias' is not a word, and 'was' is singular.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bacteria”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.