Standard Lemma guide

biophysics

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

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  • CMU ARPABET: B AY2 OW0 F IH1 S IH0 K S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The interdisciplinary science that applies theories and methods of the physical sciences to questions of biology.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:biophysics.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

physics as applied to biological problems

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: physics, natural philosophy

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gweyh3-der. Ancient Greek βῐ́ος (bĭ́os) Ancient Greek βῐο- (bĭo-)der. English bio- Proto-Indo-European *bhuH- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *bhuHyéti Ancient Greek φῠ́ω (phŭ́ō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Ancient Greek -τις (-tis) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós) Ancient Greek φυσικός (phusikós)der. Latin physicusder. Middle English phisik English physic English physics English biophysics From bio- + physics.

Across languages

Translations

36 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: biofizikë — science
  • Armenian: կենսաֆիզիկա (kensafizika) — science
  • Bengali: প্রাণপদার্থবিদ্যা (pranpodarthobidda) — science
  • Catalan: biofísica — science
  • Chinese Mandarin: 生物物理學 /生物物理学 (shēngwù wùlǐxué) — science
  • Chinese Mandarin: 生物物理 (shēngwù wùlǐ) — science
  • Czech: biofyzika — science
  • Danish: biofysik — science
  • Dutch: biofysica — science
  • Estonian: biofüüsika — science
  • Finnish: biofysiikka — science
  • French: biophysique — science
  • Galician: biofísica — science
  • German: Biophysik — science
  • Greek: βιοφυσική (viofysikí) — science
  • Hebrew: ביופיזיקה — science
  • Hindi: जीवभौतिकी (jīvbhautikī) — science
  • Hungarian: biofizika — science
  • Ido: biofiziko — science
  • Indonesian: biofisika — science
  • Irish: bithfhisic — science
  • Italian: biofisica — science
  • Japanese: 生物物理学 (seibutsubutsurigaku) — science
  • Korean: 생물물리학 (saengmulmullihak) — science
  • Malay: biofizik — science
  • Polish: biofizyka — science
  • Portuguese: biofísica — science
  • Romanian: biofizică — science
  • Russian: биофи́зика (biofízika) — science
  • Serbo-Croatian: биофизика — science
  • Serbo-Croatian: biofizika — science
  • Spanish: biofísica — science
  • Swedish: biofysik — science
  • Tagalog: biyopisika — science
  • Turkish: biyofizik — science
  • Vietnamese: lý sinh học — science
Real reading context

biophysics in complete knowledge articles