pathogenic bacteria

/ˌpæθəˈdʒenɪk bækˈtɪəriə/

noun phrase

  1. Bacteria that can cause disease or infection in humans, animals, or plants.

    B2

    plural noun phrase

    • "Some pathogenic bacteria can make people very ill."B1
    • "Cooking food thoroughly helps destroy pathogenic bacteria."B2
    • "Pathogenic bacteria can lead to infections such as strep throat or tuberculosis."B2
    • "Doctors often prescribe antibiotics to treat infections caused by pathogenic bacteria."B2
    • "Researchers are studying how pathogenic bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics."C1

Common mistakes

  • a pathogenic bacteria→a pathogenic bacterium

    "Bacteria" is plural; the singular form is "bacterium".

Collocations

harmful bacteriaantibiotic-resistant bacteriabacterial infectionpathogenic bacteria in foodpathogenic bacteria in waterpathogenic bacteria in the body

Word family

pathogenpathogenicbacteriumbacterial