Free from bacteria or not caused by bacteria; describes something that is sterile or uncontaminated by bacterial growth.
From the prefix 'a-' (without) plus 'bacterial' (relating to bacteria). The term entered scientific vocabulary in the late 19th/early 20th century as microbiology advanced and scientists needed language to describe sterile or non-bacterial conditions.
Medical researchers discovered that some diseases people thought were caused by bacteria were actually caused by viruses, leading them to use 'abacterial' to describe infections that showed no bacterial growth—this was a huge breakthrough in understanding different types of germs.
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