Staphylococcus aureus (pronounced /ˌstæfɨləˈkɒkəs ˈɔriəs/, literally the "golden cluster seed" or "the seed gold" and also known as golden staph) is the most common cause of staph infections. It is a spherical bacterium, frequently part of the skin flora found in the nose and on skin. About 20% of the population are long-term carriers of S.

aureus. S. aureus can cause a range of illnesses from minor skin infections, such as pimples, impetigo (may also be caused by Streptococcus pyogenes), boils, cellulitis folliculitis, furuncles, carbuncles, scalded skin syndrome and abscesses, to life-threatening diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, Toxic shock syndrome (TSS), and septicemia. Its incidence is from skin, soft tissue, respiratory, bone, joint, endovascular to wound infections.

It is still one of the four most common causes of nosocomial infections, often causing postsurgical wound infections. Abbreviated to S. aureus or Staph aureus in medical literature, S.

aureus should not be confused with the similarly named (and also medically relevant) species of the genus Streptococcus. S. aureus was discovered in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1880 by the surgeon Sir Alexander Ogston in pus from surgical abscesses. Each year some 500,000 patients in American hospitals contract a staphylococcal infection.

S. aureus is a facultatively anaerobic, Gram-positive coccus, which appears as grape-like clusters when viewed through a microscope and has large, round, golden-yellow colonies, often with hemolysis, when grown on blood agar plates. The golden appearance is the etymological root of the bacteria's name: aureus means "golden" in Latin.

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