noun
- a bacterium, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, which causes diphtheria.
noun
- a rodlike Gram-positive bacterium, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, that causes diphtheria: family Corynebacteriaceae.
n.
- A gram-positive, nonmotile, rod-shaped bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae that causes diphtheria in humans and produces an exotoxin that causes tissue degeneration.