Link Centre Dictionary

Rickettsia

ric·kett·sia

uncommon informal

noun

1.

any of a group of parasitic bacteria that live in arthropods (as ticks and mites) and can cause disease if transmitted to human beings

Origin

Borrowed from translingual Rickettsia (genus name), from Howard Taylor Ricketts, equivalent to Ricketts + -ia.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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.