Cocci (singular - coccus, from the Latin coccinus (scarlet) and derived from the Greek kokkos (berry) ) are any microorganism (usually bacteria) whose overall shape's spherical or nearly spherical. Describing a bacterium as a coccus, or sphere, distinguishes it from bacillus, or rod. This's the first of many taxonomic traits for identifying and classifying a bacterium according to binomial nomenclature. Aggregations Aggregations of coccoid bacteria often occur and these forms have specific name… (More on Cocci)