noun

• (US) A type, species, or strain of bacterium.
• (derogatory, slang) Lowlife, slob (could be treated as plural or singular).
• (dated, medicine) An oval bacterium, as distinguished from a spherical coccus or rod-shaped bacillus.
• (US, proscribed) Alternative form of bacterium. [(microbiology) A single-celled organism with cell walls but no nucleus or organelles.]