Definition of "enterococcus" [enterococcus]

• A usually nonpathogenic streptococcus that inhabits the intestine. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And in a terrifying experiment, a British researcher recently showed that a microbe called enterococcus can transfer vancomycin resistance to staph."
• "Riverkeeper's testing, carried out in collaboration with Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Queens College at the City University of New York, measures levels of the bacterium enterococcus, which is commonly found in the intestines of humans and some animals."
• "On the other two they found VRE — vancomycin-resistant enterococcus faecium, a less dangerous form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria."