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bacterial

adjective

Simple meaning

Caused by or related to tiny living organisms that can sometimes cause disease.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

baktihreeuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

bækˈtɪɹiəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. microbiology

    Relating to or caused by bacteria

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: Relating to or caused by bacteria

Used this way, bacterial is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use bacterial

  • “Bacterial infection.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

bacterial growthbacterial meningitisbacterial pneumoniabacterial infectionbacterial cellbacterial endocarditisbacterial speciesbacterial action

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • bacteriologynounScientific field · specialist

    The branch of medical science that studies bacteria in relation to disease.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • bacterial plaquenounCompound term

    A film of mucus and bacteria deposited on the teeth that encourages the development of dental caries.

  • bacterial toxinnounCompound term

    Any endotoxin or exotoxin formed in or elaborated by bacterial cells.

  • subacute bacterial endocarditisnounCompound term

    A chronic bacterial infection of the endocardium and heart valves.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.