With increasing frequency, the rod-shaped bacteria have been recently referred to in Czech as tyče (the singular is tyč) instead of the diminutive tyčinky (the singular is tyčinka) as used in classical Czech textbooks and handbooks of medical microbiology. This discordance might result from inadequate translation of the English term rods. Although the English-Czech dictionary gives three equivalents for the analyzed meaning of this word, i.e. tyč, tyčka, tyčinka, the first option, a monosyllable as the English rod is, is often selected without further consideration. Nevertheless, such simplification is not justified; to avoid confusion it is preferable to use conventional terminology.

        Key words: bacteriological terminology – rods.