SPIROCHETE

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Meaning:

Parasitic or free-living bacteria; many pathogenic to humans and other animals

Synonyms:

spirochaete; spirochete

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("spirochete" is a kind of...):

eubacteria; eubacterium; true bacteria (a large group of bacteria having rigid cell walls; motile types have flagella)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spirochete"):

treponema (spirochete that causes disease in humans (e.g. syphilis and yaws))

borrelia (cause of e.g. European and African relapsing fever)

Borrelia burgdorferi; Lime disease spirochete (cause of Lyme disease; transmitted primarily by ticks of genus Ixodes)

leptospira (important pathogens causing Weil's disease or canicola fever)

Holonyms ("spirochete" is a member of...):

order Spirochaetales; Spirochaetales (higher bacteria; slender spiral rodlike forms)