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Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
spirochete

1877, from Modern Latin Spirochæta, the genus name, from spiro- Modern Latin comb. form of Greek speira "a coil" (see spiral (adj.)) + Greek khaite "hair" (see chaeto-).

Wiktionary
spirochete

alt. any of several coiled bacteria, of the order ''Spirochaetales'', most of which are pathogenic to both humans and animals n. any of several coiled bacteria, of the order ''Spirochaetales'', most of which are pathogenic to both humans and animals

WordNet
spirochete

n. parasitic or free-living bacteria; many pathogenic to humans and other animals [syn: spirochaete]

Usage examples of "spirochete".

There were programmed bacteria of every size and shape, eubacteria, spherical cocci, and spirochetes with their whiplike tails.

One of these symbiotic microorganisms is a protozoan named polymastigote, which moves around only because spirochete bacteria attach to it like tiny outboard motors.

Schaudinn that spirochetes had anything to do with trypanosomes, but it set Paul Ehrlich aflame.

Of a wretch, so dreadfully had the pale spirochetes gnawed at his throat that he had had to be fed liquid food through a tube for months.

A surprising number, like the ubiquitous intestinal spirochetes, have no detectable function at all.

The spirochetes of syphilis, brought back from the New World by the intrepid explorers on the ships of Columbus, are of no more concern to the blood-drinker than the molecules of alcohol or the harsh dissonance of cocaine.

Both doctors, Papa and Theodore, pointed out that my mucous membranes had never been invaded by bugs - gonococci and spirochete treponema pallidum and such - because I had been drilled and drilled in ‘Always use a rubber except when you want a baby’, and my girls had been trained the same way.

Better established is Lyme disease, caused by a spirochete that we get from the bite of ticks carried by mice and deer.

It has long been established that the first eukaryotic cells came about by the union of two other more primitive types of organism, the earlier prokaryotic cell and a kind of spirochete.