Standard Lemma guide

guanine

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.

  • /ˈɡwɑː.niːn/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɑːniːn
  • CMU ARPABET: G W AA1 N IY2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A substance first obtained from guano; it is a nucleic base and pairs with cytosine in DNA and RNA (by means of three hydrogen bonds).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: nucleobase, purine

2

noun

Meaning 2

a purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with cytosine

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: G

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: purine

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Quechua wanubor. Spanish guanobor. English guano Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Italic *-īnos Latin -īnusder. Old French -inbor. Middle English -in English -ine English guanine From guano + -ine. Guanine was named by the German chemist Julius Bodo Unger in 1846 who isolated it from guano.

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: guanina — substance obtained from guano
  • Chinese Mandarin: 鳥嘌呤 /鸟嘌呤 (niǎopiàolìng, niǎopiāolìng) — substance obtained from guano
  • Czech: guanin — substance obtained from guano
  • Esperanto: guanino — substance obtained from guano
  • Finnish: guaniini — substance obtained from guano
  • French: guanine — substance obtained from guano
  • German: Guanin — substance obtained from guano
  • Hungarian: guanin — substance obtained from guano
  • Icelandic: gúanín — substance obtained from guano
  • Italian: guanina — substance obtained from guano
  • Japanese: グアニン (guanin) — substance obtained from guano
  • Kazakh: гуанин (guanin) — substance obtained from guano
  • Kyrgyz: гуанин (guanin) — substance obtained from guano
  • Polish: guanina — substance obtained from guano
  • Russian: гуани́н (guanín) — substance obtained from guano
  • Spanish: guanina — substance obtained from guano
  • Turkish: guanin — substance obtained from guano