How to Use bacillus in a Sentence

bacillus

noun
  • Mercifully, our present virus doesn’t match the plague bacillus in lethality.
    — Matt Winesett, National Review, 4 Apr. 2020
  • In terms of the probiotic, these chips are legit, with the strain bacillus coagulans added into the mix.
    — Abby Langer, SELF, 20 Dec. 2017
  • Also, the early use of face masks which predated Wu's discovery of the bacillus as pneumonic.
    — Paul French, CNN, 18 Apr. 2020
  • Eventually a virus—1/20th the size of a bacillus—was identified as the culprit.
    — Edward Kosner, WSJ, 10 Dec. 2017
  • Centuries later, scientists concluded that the disease was caused by the bacillus , which spread through touch, through the air and through the bite of infected fleas and rats.
    — Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2020
  • Scientists postulate that the bacillus originated in some lower animal and jumped to humans.
    — Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2022
  • Mingheria, as Pamuk conceives it, is an impossible Eden, into which the bacillus of history must enter.
    — James Wood, The New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2022
  • The technique is a deadly bacteria bacillus, one that first emerges in one corner of the world and is spreading far and wide, with consequences that could prove disastrous for hundreds of millions of people.
    — Frida Ghitis, CNN, 14 Sep. 2021
  • The masses of poor religious Jews in Poland were almost accidental to the effort; the real target was the élite, who brought with them the bacillus of cosmopolitanism.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 15 June 2020
  • Renovations can be observed in older buildings that in Soviet times were factories for mass-producing bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax.
    — Joby Warrick, chicagotribune.com, 18 Mar. 2018
  • The peritonitis was the result of the undiagnosed gonorrhea that also led to pericarditis, pleurisy, arthritis in her hips and feet, and vulnerability to the tuberculosis bacillus.
    — Frances Wilson, The New York Review of Books, 2 Feb. 2023
  • The ReencleMicrobe mix at the heart of this process contains rice husks, vermiculite, nonpathogenic bacillus bacteria, ammonium sulfate, and wood pellets, according to the company.
    — Richard Baguley, Wired, 31 Mar. 2022
  • Once the bacillus and its antibacterial medication were discovered, the TB patient was no longer exiled but treated within, and assimilated by, the same socioeconomic framework as the rest of us.
    — Joseph Osmundson, The New Republic, 30 July 2020
  • To assist with muscle growth and recovery, use ingredients like tart cherry, turmeric extract, and 2 billion CFU probiotics (bacillus coagulans) after your workout.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 16 Nov. 2022
  • For places where water can’t be drained, like ponds and fountains, use mosquito dunks or bits that contain bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, BTI, a naturally occurring bacterium that kills mosquito larvae but is harmless to pets, birds and other wildlife.
    — Tiffany Acosta, AZCentral.com, 11 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bacillus.' 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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