Definitions

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

  • noun An essential amino acid, C9H11NO2, that occurs as a constituent of many proteins and is normally converted to tyrosine in the human body. It is necessary for growth in infants and for nitrogen equilibrium in adults.

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

  • noun biochemistry An essential amino acid C9H11NO2 found in most animal proteins; it is essential for growth; the inability to metabolize it leads to phenylketonuria; it is a constituent of aspartame.

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

  • noun an essential amino acid found in proteins and needed for growth of children and for protein metabolism in children and adults; abundant in milk and eggs; it is normally converted to tyrosine in the human body

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From phenyl and alanine.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Oh well, I'm not scared of being eating an essential aminoacid!

    April 8, 2008

  • a beauty to spend time repeating loudly! (As I did once I decided to try and pronounce it for the first time a few years ago.)

    April 26, 2008

  • In Islamic countries, this aminoacid is not phenylhalal.

    April 26, 2008