Standard Lemma guide

chlorophyll

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.

  • UK: /ˈklɔː.ɹə.fɪl/
  • UK: /ˈklɒɹ.ə.fɪl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: /ˈklɔɹ.ə.fɪl/
  • CMU ARPABET: K L AO1 R AH0 F IH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of a group of green pigments that are found in the chloroplasts of plants and in other photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, microbiology, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

any of a group of green pigments found in photosynthetic organisms; there are four naturally occurring forms

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: chlorophyl

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: pigment

Narrower terms: chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, chlorophyll c, chlorofucin, chlorophyll d

History

Etymology

Borrowed from French chlorophylle, from Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós, “pale green”) and φύλλον (phúllon, “leaf”).

Across languages

Translations

75 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: chlorofil — green pigment
  • Afrikaans: bladgroen — green pigment
  • Arabic: يَخْضُور (yaḵḍūr) — green pigment
  • Arabic: كْلُورُوفِيل (klūrūfīl) — green pigment
  • Armenian: քլորոֆիլ (kʻlorofil) — green pigment
  • Azerbaijani: xlorofil — green pigment
  • Bashkir: хлорофилл (xlorofill) — green pigment
  • Basque: klorofila — green pigment
  • Bulgarian: хлорофи́л (hlorofíl) — green pigment
  • Catalan: clorofil·la — green pigment
  • Chinese Mandarin: 葉綠素 /叶绿素 (yèlǜsù) — green pigment
  • Czech: chlorofyl — green pigment
  • Danish: klorofyl — green pigment
  • Danish: bladgrønt — green pigment
  • Dutch: bladgroen — green pigment
  • Dutch: chlorofyl — green pigment
  • Estonian: klorofüll — green pigment
  • Faroese: blaðgrøni — green pigment
  • Finnish: lehtivihreä — green pigment
  • Finnish: klorofylli — green pigment
  • French: chlorophylle — green pigment
  • Galician: clorofila — green pigment
  • German: Chlorophyll — green pigment
  • German: Blattgrün — green pigment
  • German: Blattgrien — green pigment
  • Greek: χλωροφύλλη (chlorofýlli) — green pigment
  • Gujarati: હરિતદ્રવ્ય (haritadravya) — green pigment
  • Hindi: पर्णहरित (parṇahrit) — green pigment
  • Icelandic: blaðgræna — green pigment
  • Icelandic: laufgræna — green pigment
  • Icelandic: klórófýl — green pigment
  • Italian: clorofilla — green pigment
  • Japanese: クロロフィル (kurorofiru) — green pigment
  • Japanese: 葉緑素 (yōryokuso) — green pigment
  • Kazakh: хлорофилл (xlorofill) — green pigment
  • Khmer: ហរិតបត្ត (hak rit bat) — green pigment
  • Korean: 엽록소 (yeomnokso) — green pigment
  • Korean: 클로로필 (keulloropil) — green pigment
  • Kyrgyz: хлорофилл (hlorofill) — green pigment
  • Latvian: hlorofils — green pigment
  • Lithuanian: žãlymas — green pigment
  • Macedonian: хлорофил (hlorofil) — green pigment
  • Malay: klorofil — green pigment
  • Malay: zat hijau — green pigment
  • Malayalam: ഹരിതകം (haritakaṁ) — green pigment
  • Malayalam: ക്ലോറോഫിൽ (klōṟōphil) — green pigment
  • Eastern Mari: хлорофилл (hlorofill) — green pigment
  • Mongolian: хлорофилл (xlorofill) — green pigment
  • Mongolian: навчны ногоон эд (navčny nogoon ed) — green pigment
  • Mongolian: ᡀᠣᠷᠣᠹᠢᠯᠯ (lhorofill) — green pigment
  • Mongolian: ᠨᠠᠪᠴᠢᠨ ᠦ ᠨᠣᠭᠣᠭᠠᠨ ᠡᠳ᠋ (nabčin-ü noɣoɣan ed) — green pigment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: bladgrønt — green pigment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: klorofyll — green pigment
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: bladgrønt — green pigment
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: klorofyll — green pigment
  • Persian: سبزینه (sebzine) — green pigment
  • Persian: کلروفیل (klorofil) — green pigment
  • Polish: chlorofil — green pigment
  • Portuguese: clorofila — green pigment
  • Quechua: raphi q'umir — green pigment
  • Romanian: clorofilă — green pigment
  • Russian: хлорофи́лл (xlorofíll) — green pigment
  • Serbo-Croatian: хлорофил — green pigment
  • Serbo-Croatian: клорофил — green pigment
  • Serbo-Croatian: hlorofil — green pigment
  • Serbo-Croatian: klorofil — green pigment
  • Slovene: klorofil — green pigment
  • Spanish: clorofila — green pigment
  • Swahili: umbijani — green pigment
  • Swedish: klorofyll — green pigment
  • Swedish: bladgrönt — green pigment
  • Tagalog: kloropila — green pigment
  • Turkish: klorofil — green pigment
  • Vietnamese: chất diệp lục — green pigment
  • Vietnamese: diệp lục tố — green pigment
Real reading context

chlorophyll in complete knowledge articles