“+ noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek korynē club + New Latin bacterium; akin to Latin cornu horn — more at horn
1. capitalized : a large genus (the type of the family Corynebacteriaceae) of usually gram-positive aerobic to microaerophilic nonmotile bacteria that occur as irregular or branching rods often banded with metachromatic granules and include a number of important parasites of man, lower animals, and plants — see diphtheria , ring rot
2. plural corynebacteria : any bacterium of the genus Corynebacterium