archaealadj.
/ɑːˈkiːəl/, U.S. /ɑrˈkiəl/ Biology.
Of, relating to, or involving the taxon Archaea or its members, the archaebacteria.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > organism > micro-organism > archaebacterium > [adjective]
archaebacterial1978
archaeal1990
1990 C. R. Woese et al. in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87 4579/1 The other archaeal kingdom comprises most of what have been variously called the ‘thermoacidophiles’, ‘sulfur-dependent archaebacteria’, ‘eocytes’, or ‘extreme thermophiles’.
1997 Science 2 May 700/2 Those who favor an archaeal origin of life admit that they need to go back further into the past.
2000 C. Tudge Variety of Life i. i. 8 The inventory of known bacterial and archaeal species now stands at around 40,000.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
adj.1990