The collective noun for cultures from different sites (blood, urine etc.)

Question

What is the collective noun for microbiological cultures from different sites (blood, urine, feces etc.)? For example:

"Data on ___________ [cultures from different sites (blood, urine etc.)] were collected from the department of clinical microbiology."

Your example sentence is wrong, unless you mean that the data were collected from the department. Further, no quotes around "cultures". — Carl Witthoft, Jun 26 '17 at 14:18
This is going to be difficult, as the word "culture" itself is a collective noun describing what's usually a large group of whatever it is you're going to analyze. — Carl Witthoft, Jun 26 '17 at 14:20

alwayslearning · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-26 15:56:40Z

2

You are most likely talking of specimens.

"Data on specimens was collected from the department of clinical microbiology."

M-W:

specimen noun
1 b : a portion or quantity of material for use in testing, examination, or study : a urine specimen

ODO:

specimen NOUN
1.2 A sample for medical testing, especially of urine.

‘Specimens of blood or urine are the alternatives…’

answered Jun 26 '17 at 14:51

alwayslearning

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This is great. Other than specimen, I can only think of "test samples" but that is a less precise term. – PV22 Jun 26 '17 at 16:02
Good word, but it's not a collective noun. (Tho' the OP probably doesn't care) – Carl Witthoft Jun 26 '17 at 19:25

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