thymine
English
Ball-and-stick model of a thymine molecule. Key: black = carbon, blue = nitrogen, red = oxygen, white = hydrogen.
Etymology
From thymus + -ine. Thymine was first isolated in 1893 by Albrecht Kossel and Albert Neumann from calves' thymus glands, hence its name.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈθaɪmɪn/
Noun
thymine (countable and uncountable, plural thymines)
- (organic chemistry, genetics) A heterocyclic base, 5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione; it pairs with adenine in DNA.
- 1997, Ian McEwan, Enduring Love, Vintage (1998), page 164:
- Then he found them, the substances that made up the four-letter alphabet in whose language all life is written — adenine and cytosine, guanine and thymine.
Related terms
Translations
organic chemistry, genetics: heterocyclic base, 5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione
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French
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Further reading
- “thymine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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