Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A very large molecule, such as a polymer or protein, consisting of many smaller structural units linked together.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A molecule consisting of several molecules.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem., Biochem.) A very large molecule, especially a polymer having from hundreds to many thousands of atoms, such as DNA, RNA, protein, polysaccharide, polyethylene, polycarbonate, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chemistry, biochemistry A very large molecule, especially used in reference to large biological polymers (e.g. nucleic acids and proteins).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any very large complex molecule; found only in plants and animals

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

macro- +‎ molecule

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Examples

  • A macromolecule is a molecule that consists of repeated 'building blocks', that may not be identical.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • - "In EF, the force moving the macromolecule is the electric potential, E" (wrong, driving force is an electric field).

    Planet Atheism 2008

  • For instance, I saw the word 高分子 (koubunshi) and wanted to find out how it was used in context (it means "macromolecule" and "polymer"), and hit so many Chinese pages, I had to choose the "Japanese" option to be able to find just those pages.

    When mom became mum mj 2009

  • Fourth, in the context of biology a "macromolecule" often refers to two or more distinct molecules.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • I have started a macromolecule page which provides referenced definitions of the term "macromolecule" and explains how the usage of the term differs between polymer chemistry and biology.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • DNA is an extremely long "macromolecule" that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms.

    Latest News - UPI.com 2009

  • Now if the original is just a single macromolecule do nothing much more than floating around in the soup, then it may be a comparitively uncomplicated matter to make use of it as a template.

    Bits and Pieces of an RNA World 2007

  • May 10th, 2007 at 6: 46 pm eric: Now if the original is just a single macromolecule do nothing much more than floating around in the soup, then it may be a comparitively uncomplicated matter to make use of it as a template.

    Bits and Pieces of an RNA World 2007

  • I can tell you about the macromolecule ATP and the energy currency to the cell.

    Gladiator Dan Clark 2009

  • The formation of glycogen in the reverse reaction was the first demonstration of synthesis of a macromolecule in a test tube, contradicting concepts then current.

    Gerty Theresa Cori. 2009

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