Lyme disease spirochete
1
6.8
- noun
- /laɪm dɪˈziːz ˈspaɪrəˌkiːt/
- Specialized
- Testing identified the presence of the Lyme disease spirochete in the patient's blood.
Examples
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Researchers studied how the Lyme disease spirochete invades human tissues.
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The Lyme disease spirochete is transmitted by ticks.
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The Lyme disease spirochete is typically transmitted through the bite of an infected tick.
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Many scientists study the Lyme disease spirochete to understand its behavior.
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Research has shown that Lyme disease spirochetes are found in the bodies of infected ticks.
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The doctor explained that Lyme disease spirochetes can lead to serious health issues if not treated promptly.
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Scientists are studying how Lyme disease spirochetes survive in the environment and affect their hosts.
Synonyms
1
7.7
A type of bacteria that causes Lyme disease and spreads to people through tick bites
Surface Forms
Morphology
Lyme + disease + spirochete
The phrase is a straightforward noun–noun composition: 'Lyme disease' (the illness) + 'spirochete' (a spiral-shaped bacterium), i.e. the spirochete associated with or causing Lyme disease. This follows a regular compositional pattern (disease + pathogen) found cross-linguistically, so a learner who knows the constituent meanings can infer the MWE.
Etymology
Lyme disease spirochete comes from a place and the germ's shape: Lyme is the town where doctors first saw the illness, and spirochete describes the germ's spiral, corkscrew shape. So the phrase names the spiral-shaped germ that causes 'Lyme disease'.