Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various spherical, aerobic, gram-positive bacteria of the genus Micrococcus that are usually nonmotile and occur in pairs, tetrads, or irregular clusters.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of Schizomycetes (fission-fungi or bacteria), and the only one of the tribe Sphærobacteria.
  • noun [lowercase) pl. micrococci (-sī).] Any member of this genus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biol.) A genus of Spherobacteria, in the form of very small globular or oval cells, forming, by transverse division, filaments, or chains of cells, or in some cases single organisms shaped like dumb-bells (Diplococcus), all without the power of motion. See Illust. of ascoccus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology Any of a group of spherical, aerobic, gram-positive bacteria, of the genus Micrococcus, that are wide-ranging and harmless

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun type genus of the family Micrococcaceae

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

micro- + -coccus

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Examples

  • There was the bacillus anthracis; there was the micrococcus; there was the Bacterium termo, and the Bacterium lactis -- that's what turns the goat milk sour even to this day, Hare-Lip; and there were Schizomycetes without end.

    Page 4 2010

  • Humans have a whole garden of specialized human-dwelling bacteria -- tank-car E. coli, balloon-shaped staphylococcus, streptococcus, corynebacteria, micrococcus, and so on.

    bacteria: a post in quotes jlundberg 2007

  • There are also two pigment forming bacteria, _Micrococcus prodigiosus, _ which produces intensely red spots, and the yellow micrococcus of osteomyelitis.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886 Various

  • This disease is caused by a small micrococcus, the organisms joined in pairs.

    Disease and Its Causes William Thomas Councilman

  • Other parasites of this class are the _micrococcus_ of chicken cholera (Fig. 3), the _micrococcus_ of hog measles, and the

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884 Various

  • He proceeded in the main on the assumption that the forms of bacteria as met with and described by him are practically constant, at any rate within limits which are not wide: observing that a minute spherical micrococcus or a rod-like bacillus regularly produced similar micrococci and bacilli respectively, he based his classification on what may be considered the constancy of forms which he called species and genera.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various

  • To cite only those whose origin is well known, we may mention the bacterium that causes charbon, the micrococcus of chicken cholera, and that of hog measles.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884 Various

  • A physician examined after death the body of a person who died from infection with a very virulent micrococcus and in the course of the examination slightly scratched a finger.

    Disease and Its Causes William Thomas Councilman

  • The nitrifying organism has been submitted as yet to but little microscopical study; it is apparently a micrococcus.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 470, January 3, 1885 Various

  • Now there's not a micrococcus in the garden where they play

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, April 23, 1919 Various

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