echinococcus

Borrowed from translingual Echinococcus, from echino- (“sea urchin, prickle”) +‎ -coccus (“spherical microorganism”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˌkaɪ.nəˈkɑk.əs/
• Rhymes: -ɒkəs

echinococcus (plural echinococci)

1. (archaic, zoology) A parasite of humans and of many domestic and wild animals, thought to be the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus, that forms compound cysts or tumours (called hydatid cysts) in various organs, but especially in the liver and lungs.

• “echinococcus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.