coli

C3O1L1I1
/ˈkoʊ.laɪ/

noun

Escherichia coli, a Gram-negative bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms.

Similar
colibacillus
OriginLatin colī →
CommonScrabble 6
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Meanings

nouncoli (plural coli)
  1. attributiveoftenbacteriologyEscherichia coli, a Gram-negative bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms.

    Five of the strains of E. coli are related to only one of the S. dysenteriae strains. Three of the coli are related to two of the strains of S. dysenteriae, four are related to three of the S. dysenteriae strains, and one, A-H6, is related to all.

    1939 January, Thomas T. Mackie, “The Specificity of the Agglutinin Reaction for Shigella dysenteriae: II. Agglutinin Absorption Relationships between Shigella dysenteriae and Escherichia coli”, in Journal of Bacteriology, volume 37, number 1, →PMID, archived from the original on 10 Jun 2020, page 47

    Synonyms: colibacillus

Synonyms & antonyms

nounEscherichia coli, a Gram-negative bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms.

Similar
colibacillus

Origin

  1. Latincolī
  2. Englishcoli

Ellipsis of Bacterium coli or Bacillus coli, obsolete taxonomic names of the species (now called Escherichia coli). The word itself derives from Latin colī, genitive of colon (“colon, large intestine”).

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 大腸桿菌 /大肠杆菌
  • 大腸桿菌 /大肠杆菌 (dàcháng gǎnjūn)Escherichia coli
Finnish kolibakteeri
  • kolibakteeriEscherichia coli
French coli, colibacille
  • coliEscherichia coli
  • colibacilleEscherichia coli
German Kolibakterium, Kolibakterie
  • KolibakteriumEscherichia coli
  • KolibakterieEscherichia coli
Hungarian kólibaktérium, kólibacilus
  • kólibaktériumEscherichia coli
  • kólibacilusEscherichia coli
Italian colibacillo
  • colibacilloEscherichia coli
Polish pałeczka okrężnicy
  • pałeczka okrężnicyEscherichia coli
Russian кише́чная па́лочка
  • кише́чная па́лочка (kišéčnaja páločka)Escherichia coli

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

coilClio
Cite this entry
APA

coli. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coli

MLA

“coli.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coli. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “coli,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coli.

Source: coli on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.