Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of numerous proteins or conjugated proteins produced by living organisms and functioning as biochemical catalysts.
Wiktionary
- n. biochemistry A globular protein that catalyses a biological chemical reaction.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Physiol. Chem.) A protein produced by a living organism, capable of catalyzing a chemical reaction. Almost all processes in living organisms require some form of enzyme to cause the reactions to occur at a rate sufficient to support life. There are a very wide variety of enzymes, each specifically catalyzing a different chemical reaction, the sum of which cause the bulk of the physiological changes observed as life processes. Enzymes, like most proteins, are synthesized by the protein-synthetic mechanism of the living cell, at special sites on ribosomes, using the genetic information in messenger RNA transcribed from the genetic instructions stored as nuleotide sequences in the DNA (or in some viruses, the RNA) of the genome. Some examples of enzymes are: pepsin, diastase, rennet, DNA polymerase, invertase, glucose oxidase, protease, and ribonuclease. There are many other types of enzyme.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of several complex proteins that are produced by cells and act as catalysts in specific biochemical reactions
Etymologies
- From German Enzym, created in 1878, by the German physiologist Wilhelm Kühne from Ancient Greek ἐν (en, "in") and ζύμη (zýmē, "sourdough"). (Wiktionary)
- German Enzym, from Medieval Greek enzūmos, leavened : Greek en-, in; see en-2 + Greek zūmē, leaven, yeast. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I think residual bromelain enzyme from the piña breaks down the gluten in the wheat flour.”
“And scientists coined the word enzyme, denoting the remarkable protein molecules that living cells use to transform other molecules, from the Greek words for “in yeast,” where sugar is transformed into alcohol.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“If that enzyme is blocked, levels of 17 hydroxyprogesterone build up, and then steroid production tends to preferentially head down the other path towards testosterone.”
“This enzyme is part of the adrenal production pathway for cortisol, and catalyzes the conversion of 17-hydroxyprogesterone to 11-deoxycortisol.”
“This enzyme is responsible for the majority of starch digestion.”
“This neurotoxic action kills bugs by reducing the level of a certain enzyme (acetylcholinesterase) that clears an important neurotransmitter chemical (acetylcholine) out of the junction between nerve cells.”
The Huffington Post: Dr. Walter Crinnion: Could Organic Produce Be the New Ritalin?
“With the introduction of thermodynamics, advances in enzyme chemistry and the discovery of phosphorylated compounds in the 1920s, the stage was set for a sudden shift in how scientists understood intermediate metabolism.”
Otto Meyerhof and the Physiology Institute: the Birth of Modern Biochemistry
“Long term enzyme-replacement therapy for people with Pompe disease, an inherited muscle disorder affecting fewer than 10,000 people world-wide. —”
“It could be that the enzyme is simply not capable of doing more, or it could be that the mutational trajectory needed to acquire additional function is prohibitively long and/or complex.”
“I was told design cannot explain why a glycolytic enzyme is part of the degradosome.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘enzyme’.
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SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
silicon, silica, shrimp, shelve, shallot, serine, seedling, septic, secretin, seaweed, screening, Scomber and 1171 more...
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Beer and Brewing
Words about beer and the making of it.
airlock, bung, carboy, diversol, hops, mashtun, beer, sparge, trub, wort, malt, malt liquor and 184 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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Jargon
parametric, heteroscedasticity, coleopteran, oogenesis, oology, frass, semiochemical, numismatics, ctenophora, synthetase, synthase, enzyme and 12 more...
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science (collective opinion)
random scientific terms from a group of one hundred 16-18 year olds to choose 100 words that, in their collective opinion, represent crucial factors and concepts influencing trends in science today...
symbiosis, stem cell, solution, research, reaction, pressure, relativity, particle, probability, wave, organism, pollution and 90 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Words I like
There's nothing more to this list, really.
lily, defenestrate, gloaming, aesthetically, melody, translucent, semiotics, wistful, linear, origami, plethora, schadenfreude and 92 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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I love you for your sound
loquacious, bumble, klaxon, rhythmicity, lexicon, ghastly, liquidation, labradorescence, springtide, foist, Herculean, cankerblossom and 77 more...
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leaven heaven
a haven for lightness
leaven, lever, levity, alleviate, carnival, elevate, legerdemain, mezzo-relievo, relevant, relieve, leprechaun, lung and 36 more...
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99 fall final (caffeine)
neuron, nerve, inhibit, membrance, enzyme, cyclic, exert, prolonge, concentration, buttress, dislodge
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dcscot's Words
solitary, melancholy, angst, corduroy, ocular, ocular, panjandrum, vizier, fumble, prankster, alligator, serendipity and 41 more...
Tweets
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