How to Use bacterium in a Sentence

bacterium

noun
Definition of bacteriumnext
  • The bacterium was detected in remains from four out of six generations buried at some of the grave sites.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 10 July 2024
  • The bacterium Yersinia pestis originated in rodents on the Eurasian steppe.
    — Colin Thubron, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2021
  • But is the culprit a bacterium, which can be attacked with antibiotics, or a virus, which is harder to target with medication?
    — Harini Barath, Scientific American, 19 July 2021
  • Pneumonic plague, contracted when the bacterium responsible for bubonic plague gets into the lungs, was at the top of the list.
    — Nicola Twille, Wired, 6 July 2021
  • Gain-of-function research involves altering a pathogen, which is a bacterium or virus, in a way that increases its transmissibility.
    — Chris Sims, The Courier-Journal, 23 July 2021
  • Cholera, caused by a bacterium in water, devastated New York and other areas in the 1800s.
    — Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, Science | AAAS, 13 July 2021
  • Available on YouTube, the over two-minute video shows the bacteriophage at the 0:27 time mark infecting an unidentified bacterium.
    — Miriam Fauzia, USA TODAY, 27 July 2021
  • More on the Black Death: The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium.
    — Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2022
  • The bacterium was found in the boy's brain, lung, liver, and spleen.
    — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 10 Aug. 2022
  • The clear spots are areas where phage have killed the bacterium.
    — David A. Shaywitz, WSJ, 4 Aug. 2023
  • The disease is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis.
    — Ari Daniel, NPR, 3 June 2024
  • The bacterium is present in deer ticks in the Northeast and Midwestern US.
    — Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, Popular Science, 27 Mar. 2023
  • One is caused by fungi and the other is caused by a bacterium.
    — Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 19 Aug. 2023
  • Sheldon thought this rule might govern all life in the ocean, from the smallest bacterium to the largest whales.
    — Matt Reynolds, Wired, 23 Nov. 2021
  • So yes, the astonishing size of the bacterium is, well, big news.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 12 July 2022
  • The bacterium is often found in the nose and throat of people without causing the disease.
    — Monique Calello, USA TODAY, 2 Sep. 2023
  • Gros also found the bacterium attached to oyster shells, rocks and glass bottles in the swamp.
    — Christina Larson, ajc, 23 June 2022
  • There is no cure for foulbrood, which is caused by the larvae of the bacterium Paenibacillus.
    — Catherine Garcia, The Week, 5 Jan. 2023
  • The plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis is dated to have first emerged in humans about 5,000 years ago.
    — Amarachi Orie, CNN, 20 Jan. 2023
  • These and others, like the bacterium behind the Black Death, have killed tens of millions of people over the centuries.
    — Cecilia.butini, Vox, 4 June 2024
  • There is a nasty bacterium that cats have in their mouths called Pasteurella.
    — Cathy M. Rosenthal, San Antonio Express-News, 4 Aug. 2022
  • Scientists used a bacterium to clone each piece of the genome, and then studied them in smaller groups.
    — Manasee Wagh, Popular Mechanics, 1 Apr. 2022
  • The disease was caused by a bacterium that would later become known as Yersinia pestis.
    — Evan Bush, NBC News, 15 June 2022
  • This oral bacterium is one of the major causes of tooth decay.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 27 Mar. 2024
  • That strain of the bacterium is found in tropical parts of the Americas.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 28 July 2022
  • The bacterium also caused the third plague pandemic between the 19th and 20th centuries.
    — Amarachi Orie, CNN, 20 Jan. 2023
  • This bacterium was long carried by fleas that feasted on black rats.
    — Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2022
  • Botox is the brand name of a type of toxin produced by a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum.
    — Verywell Health, 5 Feb. 2023
  • This super bacterium can survive for up to three years in outer space.
    — Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 23 Mar. 2022
  • Their fur houses fleas, which can be infected with a bacterium that can set off fever.
    — Madeleine Schwartz, The New York Review of Books, 27 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bacterium.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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