Having small fringes or fringe-like structures; bearing fimbrillae, especially used to describe bacteria or microscopic organisms with these tiny hair-like appendages.
From fimbrilla with the adjective suffix -ate. This term emerged in microbiology to distinguish bacteria with these appendages from those without them, becoming important for bacterial classification.
Fimbrillate bacteria are basically the 'hairy' bacteria—scientists use this word to identify which microscopic troublemakers have those sticky fringe-like hairs that help them cling to surfaces in your body.
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