Skip to definition.
Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps


Noun: rickettsia (rickettsiae,rickettsias)  ri'ket-see-u
  1. Any of a group of very small rod-shaped bacteria that live in biting arthropods (as ticks and mites) and cause disease in vertebrate hosts; they cause typhus and other febrile diseases in human beings

Derived forms: rickettsias, rickettsiae

Type of: eubacteria, eubacterium, true bacteria

Part of: family Rickettsiaceae, Rickettsiaceae

Encyclopedia: Rickettsia