How to Use bacterium in a Sentence

bacterium

noun
  • The clear spots are areas where phage have killed the bacterium.
    — David A. Shaywitz, WSJ, 4 Aug. 2023
  • This common bacterium lives in soil, dust, and raw foods like rice.
    — Brandi Jones, Health, 18 Sep. 2025
  • The bacterium was found in the boy's brain, lung, liver, and spleen.
    — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 10 Aug. 2022
  • One is caused by fungi and the other is caused by a bacterium.
    — Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 19 Aug. 2023
  • This bacterium was long carried by fleas that feasted on black rats.
    — Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2022
  • But this bacterium doesn't tend to jump from person to person.
    — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Scientists at the time did not even know that a virus, not a bacterium, caused the flu.
    — Scott Hershberger, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2020
  • This super bacterium can survive for up to three years in outer space.
    — Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 23 Mar. 2022
  • This oral bacterium is one of the major causes of tooth decay.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 27 Mar. 2024
  • One bacterium does not an infection cause; the microbes work as a team.
    — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 20 Dec. 2019
  • There is a nasty bacterium that cats have in their mouths called Pasteurella.
    — Cathy M. Rosenthal, San Antonio Express-News, 4 Aug. 2022
  • The bacterium was found to multiply in biofilms – slimes that grow on wet surfaces.
    — Robert Promisloff, The Conversation, 19 June 2026
  • Pin agreed this will be something to watch for, if the bacterium continues to spread.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 11 May 2026
  • So yes, the astonishing size of the bacterium is, well, big news.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 12 July 2022
  • 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
  • Around 3 billion years ago, a bacterium evolved the chemical tools to feed on light.
    — Quanta Magazine, 4 May 2026
  • Tetanus is caused by a bacterium called Clostridium tetani.
    — Faye Chiu, CNN Money, 23 June 2026
  • Less certain still is just how the deadly bacterium was introduced to the area.
    — Barbie Latza Nadeau, Scientific American, 24 June 2015
  • The green color comes from the chlorophyll, which is a natural part of the bacterium.
    — Yousong Ding, Washington Post, 9 May 2018
  • Gros also found the bacterium attached to oyster shells, rocks and glass bottles in the swamp.
    — Christina Larson, ajc, 23 June 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 is a predator named lambda, and its prey is an Escherichia coli bacterium.
    — Rowan Jacobsen, Scientific American, 11 July 2019
  • In stool samples, neither bacterium showed a clear or consistent link with polyp risk.
    — New Atlas, 21 Sep. 2025
  • There is as much potential for evolution in the future as there has been to get from a bacterium to us.
    — Alan Lightman september 12, Literary Hub, 12 Sep. 2025
  • The bacterium that affected your citrus is not going to cause the decline of a fig.
    — Tom MacCubbin, OrlandoSentinel.com, 27 May 2017
  • Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, spreads through the bites of infected fleas.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 12 June 2018
  • The bacterium is often found in the nose and throat of people without causing the disease.
    — Monique Calello, USA TODAY, 2 Sep. 2023
  • The first sign is usually a lesion, a small, round and painless bump where the bacterium entered the body.
    — Matthew Ormseth, courant.com, 6 Apr. 2018
  • Multidrug resistance was defined as a bacterium that couldn't be killed by at least one drug in three or more classes.
    — Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 13 Aug. 2025

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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