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bacteriophage

bac·te·riop·hage

UK/bækˈtɪəɹ.ɪəʊˌfeɪd͡ʒ/ uncommon

noun

1.

a virus that is parasitic in bacteria; it uses the bacterium''s machinery and energy to produce more phage until the bacterium is destroyed and phage is released to invade surrounding bacteria

Synonyms

Origin

Borrowed from French bactériophage, coined by microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle, from bacterio- (“bacteria”) + -phage (“eater”).

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.