Bacillus

Definition: Bacillus

Bacillus

Noun

1. Aerobic rod-shaped spore-producing bacterium; often occurring in chainlike formations.

Date "bacillus" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1907. (references)

Etymology: Bacillus \Ba*cil"lus\, noun; plural Bacilli. [New Latin expression, for Latin bacillum. See Bacillarle.]. (Websters 1913)

Specialty Definitions: Bacillus

Domain	Definitions
Health	A genus of Bacillaceae that are spore-forming, rod-shaped cells. Most species are saprophytic soil forms with only a few species being pathogenic. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Specialty Definition: Bacillus

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The word bacillus is a descriptive term for the appearance of certain bacteria when viewed microscopically. It derives from the Latin for "staff" and means "rod-shaped". A Gram stain allows one to distinguish between cocci (round) and bacilli (rod-shaped) bacteria, as well as between Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria (the former are stained red, the latter purple). In this sense, bacilli can be either Gram-positive or Gram-negative.

When capitalized and italicized, Bacillus is also the name given to a genus of rod-shaped, Gram positive, aerobic bacteria belonging to the family Bacillaceae among the Firmicutes.

Bacillus bacteria are ubiquitous in nature and can form roughly spherical spores when conditions are stressful in order to survive in a dormant state for extended periods. There exist a huge number of species in this genus, most of which are harmless.

The two species considered medically significant are Bacillus anthracis (which causes anthrax) and Bacillus cereus (which can cause a form of food poisoning similar to that of Staphylococcus). Two species that are notable food spoilers are Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans. B. subtilis is an obligate aerobe whose spores can survive the extreme heating which is often used to cook food. It is responsible for causing ropiness in spoiled bread. B. coagulans can grow all the way down to pH 4.2 and causes a flat sour taste in contaminated canned food (including acidic foods which normally keeps most bacterial growth to a minimum).

Bacillus are gram and catalase positive bacteria who use oxygen as their terminal electron acceptor in their energy metabolic pathway. Individual Bacillus appear as rods under the microscope with usually a substantial number of the rods having an oval endospore which tends to bulge the bacterium at one end. Colonies of this genus are usually are observed as large, spreading and irregularly-shaped.

An easy way to isolate a Bacillus species is by placing non-sterile soil in a test tube with water, shake, place in melted mannitol salts agar, and incubate at room temperature for at least a day.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Bacillus."

Top

Abbreviations & Acronyms: Bacillus

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
Entry	Source	Expression	Field
BACIP	English	Bacillus subtilis Industrial Platform	Medicine
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top

Synonym: Bacillus

Synonym: bacilli (n). (additional references)

Top

Crosswords: Bacillus

English words defined with "bacillus": acid-fast ♦ baccilar, bacillary, bacilliform, baculiform ♦ Cholera bacillus, Comma bacillus, cycloserine ♦ Gartner's bacillus, genus Bacillus, Glycerin fermentation ♦ Hansen's disease ♦ Koch ♦ leprosy, leprosy bacillus ♦ Mantoux test ♦ pyocyanase ♦ Robert Koch, rod-shaped ♦ shiga bacillus, Shigella dysentariae ♦ tetanus antitoxin, tubercle bacillus, tubercular, tuberculous, typhoid bacillus, Typhotoxin. (references)

Specialty definitions using "bacillus": Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus globigii, Bacillus larvae infection, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus Phages, Bacillus stearothermophilus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus thuringiensis, bacterial protease, Biopesticide, Bordetella bronchiseptica, bronchiseptica, Bt, Bt corn, Bt gene, Bt maize, Bt protein, Butirosin Sulfate ♦ Cry protein, crystal protein, Cyclodextrins ♦ Deoxyribonuclease BamHI ♦ Edeine ♦ flat sour, flat sour spoilage ♦ gas gangrene, genetically engineered Bt corn, Gram-Positive Endospore-Forming Bacteria, Gram-Positive Endospore-Forming Rods ♦ House ♦ Megacins, Microbial Collagenase, monad, Mycobacillin, Mycobacterium bovis ♦ pestis bubonica, Polymyxin B ♦ Spores, Bacterial, Subtilisin, Subtilisins. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Bacillus" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Danish (bacillus), German (bacillus).

Top

Commercial Usage: Bacillus

Domain	Title
Books	Analytical Chemistry of Bacillus Thuringiensis (Acs Symposium Series, No 432) (reference) Applications and Systematics of Bacillus and Relatives (reference) Bacillus (Biotechnology Handbooks, Vol 2) (reference) Bacillus Subtilis and Its Closest Relatives: From Genes to Cells (reference) Bacillus Thuringiensis - Biology, Ecology & Safety (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Image Slideshow: Bacillus

Top

Photo Album: Bacillus

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Six-year-old children attend the dispensary for the second vaccination that protects them against the TB bacillus. / WHO p.Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by P. Almasy..		[The armadillo serves as a host to a bacillus used to treat leprosy].Credit: National Library of Medicine.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Non-Fiction Usage: Bacillus

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		The TB bacterium also is known as the tubercle bacillus. (references)
		Burkholderia (formerly Pseudomonas) mallei, a gram-negative bacillus. (references)
		Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	MONAD, n. The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter. (See Molecule.) According to Leibnitz, as nearly as he seems willing to be understood, the monad has body without bulk, and mind without manifestation -- Leibnitz knows him by the innate power of considering. He has founded upon him a theory of the universe, which the creature bears without resentment, for the monad is a gentlmean. Small as he is, the monad contains all the powers and possibilities needful to his evolution into a German philosopher of the first class -- altogether a very capable little fellow. He is not to be confounded with the microbe, or bacillus; by its inability to discern him, a good microscope shows him to be of an entirely distinct species.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Top

Usage Frequency: Bacillus

"Bacillus" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Bacillus" is used about 31 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	31	62,296

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top

Expression: Bacillus

Expressions using "bacillus": anthrax bacillus ♦ Bacillus amylobacter ♦ Bacillus anthracis ♦ Bacillus anthracis infection ♦ Bacillus cereus ♦ Bacillus globigii ♦ Bacillus larvae infection ♦ Bacillus licheniformis ♦ Bacillus megaterium ♦ Bacillus Phages ♦ Bacillus pyocyaneus ♦ Bacillus stearothermophilus ♦ Bacillus subtilis ♦ Bacillus thermoproteolyticus ♦ Bacillus thuringiensis ♦ Bacillus tuberculosis ♦ Cholera bacillus ♦ comma bacillus ♦ dderleins bacillus ♦ Gartner's bacillus ♦ genus Bacillus ♦ Koch's bacillus ♦ leprosy bacillus ♦ shiga bacillus ♦ tubercle bacillus ♦ typhoid bacillus. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "bacillus": bacillus-carrying.
	Ending with "bacillus": Acid-Fast-Bacillus.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Bacillus

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
bacillus subtilis	87
bacillus cereus	67
bacillus	66
bacillus anthracis	54
bacillus thuringensis	45
bacillus thuringiensis	40
bacillus megaterium	33
bacillus stearothermophilus	14
bacillus calmette guerin	10
bacillus sphaericus	9
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top

Modern Translations: Bacillus

Language		Translations for "bacillus"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		bacil. (various references)

Arabic		‏العصية بكتير عصوي الشكل, ‏بكتير مسبب لمرض. (various references)

Bulgarian		бацил (germ). (various references)

Chinese		杆菌 (Bacilli). (various references)

Czech		bacil (bug, germ). (various references)

Danish		bacillus (suppositorium, suppository), bacille. (various references)

Dutch		bacil. (various references)

Farsi		باکتریهای میله ای شکل , باسیل . (various references)

Finnish		basilli. (various references)

French		bacille (rod-shaped bacillus). (various references)

German		bazillus (bug, germ, microbe). (various references)

Greek		βακτήριο (bacterium). (various references)

Hebrew		חי�"ק (animalcule, germ, microbe). (various references)

Hungarian		bacilus (microbe, wog). (various references)

Indonesian		basil (bacilli), kuman (germ, maggot, microbe). (various references)

Italian		bacillo (rod-shaped bacillus, vibrio). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		細菌 (bacterium, germ). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		バチルス , き�" (a little, bacterium, ban, be equal to, be fit for, bedding, cloth, germ, gold, gold general, napkin, prohibition, quilt, serve, small quantity, unit of weight ~600g), さいき�" (bacterium, germ, latest, most recent, nowadays, reappointment, slight flaw), か�"き�" (confinement, government funds, realize, silent reading of sutra, turn into money). (various references)

Korean		간� (Bacilli). (various references)

Manx		bacilleen. (various references)

Pig Latin		acillusbay.(various references)

Portuguese		bacilo (bug, germ). (various references)

Romanian		bacil. (various references)

Russian		бацилла (bacillius). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		bacil. (various references)

Spanish		bacilo (germ). (various references)

Swedish		bacill (bug, germ). (various references)

Thai		แบ็กทีเรียบาซิลลัส. (various references)

Turkish		basil. (various references)

Ukranian		бацила. (various references)

Welsh		bacilws. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top

Derivations & Misspellings: Bacillus

Derivations
	Words ending with "bacillus": lactobacillus, streptobacillus. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Bacillus" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Acilius, asellus, bacilus, baillis, Basilius, Bocillus, Dascyllus, facilius, gaecilius. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top

Rhyming with "Bacillus"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "bacillus" (pronounced busi"lus)
7	b u s i" l u s	lactobacillus.
4	-i" l u s	Amaryllis.
3	-l u s	accomplice, acropolis, ageless, aimless, airless, anomalous, atlas, backless, balas, baseless, blameless, bloodless, bolus, boneless, bottomless, boundless, brainless, breathless, calculus, callous, callus, careless, Carolus, cashless, ceaseless, childless, classless, cloudless, clueless, Colas, colorless, cordless, countless, cutlass, defenseless, digitalis, directionless, doubtless, driverless, ductless, earless, effortless, endless, expressionless, eyeless, fabulous, faceless, fatherless, fearless, featherless, featureless, feckless, fellas, fenceless, flawless, flightless, frictionless, frivolous, fruitless, Gallus, garrulous, gladiolus, godless, graceless, groundless, guileless, guiltless, hairless, hapless, harmless, headless, heartless, helpless, homeless, hopeless, hornless, humorless, incredulous, irregardless, issueless, jealous, jobless, keyless, landless, lawless, leaderless, leafless, legless, libelous, lifeless, limbless, limitless, listless, loveless, luckless, malice, marvelous, meaningless, meatless, megalopolis, merciless, meticulous, metropolis, mindless, miraculous, motherless, motionless, nameless, nautilus, nebulous, necklace, necropolis, needless, odorless, overzealous, Oxalis, painless, palace, paperless, peerless, pendulous, penniless, perilous, pilotless, pitiless, pointless, polis, populace, populous, powerless, priceless, prothallus, purposeless, querulous, reckless, regardless, relentless, remorseless, restless, ridiculous, riskless, rootless, rudderless, ruthless, scandalous, scoreless, scrupulous, scurrilous, seamless, selfless, senseless, sexless, shameless, shapeless, shiftless, skinless, sleepless, sleeveless, smokeless, solace, soulless, speechless, spineless, spotless, stainless, stateless, stimulus, stylus, surplus, syphilis, tantalus, tasteless, thankless, thoughtless, ticketless, tieless, timeless, tireless, toothless, topless, treeless, trellis, tremulous, unscrupulous, useless, valueless, victimless, voiceless, warrantless, weightless, windlass, windowless, wireless, witless, wordless, worthless, zealous, zipless.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Top

Anagrams: Bacillus

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-b-c-i-l-l-s-u"
	-2 letters: abulic, callus, caulis, cullis, lilacs, scilla, sulcal.
	-3 letters: aulic, bails, balls, basic, basil, bills, bulla, bulls, calls, cauls, clubs, culls, laics, lilac, salic, scall, scuba, scull, sulci.
	-4 letters: ails, albs, alls, asci, bail, ball, bals, bias, bill, bull, cabs, call, caul, club, cubs, cull, ills, isba, labs, lacs, laic, libs, sail, sall, saul, scab, sial, sill, slab, slub, suba.
	-5 letters: abs, ail, ais, alb, all, als, bal, bas, bis, bus, cab, cis, cub, ill, lab, lac, las, lib, lis, sab, sac, sal, sau, sib, sic, sub.
	Words containing the letters "a-b-c-i-l-l-s-u"
	+2 letters: quillbacks, subglacial, umbilicals.
	+3 letters: subclinical.
	+4 letters: lactalbumins, subglacially, subsonically.
	+5 letters: biculturalism, culpabilities, lactobacillus, multisyllabic, suballocation, subclinically, subcollegiate.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.