Standard Lemma guide

mitochondrion

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌmaɪtəˈkɒndɹiən/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˌmaɪtəˈkɑndɹiən/
  • CMU ARPABET: M AY2 T AH0 K AA1 N D R IY0 AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A spherical or ovoid organelle found in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells and containing genetic material separate from that of the host; it is responsible for the conversion of food to usable energy in the form of ATP.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, cytology, medicine, natural-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an organelle containing enzymes responsible for producing energy

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: chondriosome

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: organelle, cell organelle, cell organ

Narrower terms: sarcosome

History

Etymology

From German Mitochondrium, coined by Carl Benda in 1898, from Ancient Greek μίτος (mítos, “thread”) + χονδρίον (khondríon), diminutive of χόνδρος (khóndros, “grain, morsel”).

Across languages

Translations

63 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: مِيتُوكُنْدْرِيُون (mītūkundriyūn) — respiratory organelle
  • Arabic: مُتَقَدِّرَة (mutaqaddira) — respiratory organelle
  • Arabic: مُصَوِّرَة حَيَوِيَّة — respiratory organelle
  • Arabic: حُبَيْبَة خَيْطِيَّة — respiratory organelle
  • Armenian: միտոքոնդրիում (mitokʻondrium) — respiratory organelle
  • Azerbaijani: mitoxondri — respiratory organelle
  • Bashkir: митохондрия (mitoxondriya) — respiratory organelle
  • Bengali: মাইটোকন্ড্রিয়া (maiṭōkonḍriẏa) — respiratory organelle
  • Bulgarian: митохондрия (mitohondrija) — respiratory organelle
  • Catalan: mitocondri — respiratory organelle
  • Chinese Mandarin: 線粒體 /线粒体 (xiànlìtǐ) — respiratory organelle
  • Chinese Mandarin: 粒線體 /粒线体 (lìxiàntǐ) — respiratory organelle
  • Czech: mitochondrie — respiratory organelle
  • Danish: mitokondrie — respiratory organelle
  • Dutch: mitochondrium — respiratory organelle
  • Dutch: mitochondrion — respiratory organelle
  • Esperanto: mitoĥondrio — respiratory organelle
  • Esperanto: mitokondrio — respiratory organelle
  • Estonian: mitokonder — respiratory organelle
  • Finnish: mitokondrio — respiratory organelle
  • French: mitochondrie — respiratory organelle
  • German: Mitochondrium — respiratory organelle
  • German: Mitochondrion — respiratory organelle
  • Greek: μιτοχόνδριο (mitochóndrio) — respiratory organelle
  • Hebrew: מיטוכונדריון (mitokhondrion) — respiratory organelle
  • Hindi: सूत्रकणिका (sūtrakaṇikā) — respiratory organelle
  • Hungarian: mitokondrium — respiratory organelle
  • Icelandic: hvatberi — respiratory organelle
  • Indonesian: mitokondria — respiratory organelle
  • Irish: miteacoindre — respiratory organelle
  • Italian: mitocondrio — respiratory organelle
  • Japanese: ミトコンドリア (mitokondoria) — respiratory organelle
  • Japanese: 糸粒体 (shiryuutai) — respiratory organelle
  • Kazakh: митохондрия (mitoxondriä) — respiratory organelle
  • Khmer: មីតូកុងទ្រី (miitoukongtrii) — respiratory organelle
  • Khmer: មីតូកុងឌ្រី (miitoukongdrii) — respiratory organelle
  • Korean: 미토콘드리아 (mitokondeuria) — respiratory organelle
  • Korean: 사립체 (saripche) — respiratory organelle
  • Kyrgyz: митохондрия (mitohondriya) — respiratory organelle
  • Macedonian: митохондрија (mitohondrija) — respiratory organelle
  • Malay: mitokondrion — respiratory organelle
  • Māori: punaraungao — respiratory organelle
  • Norwegian Bokmål: mitokondrium — respiratory organelle
  • Norwegian Bokmål: mitokondrie — respiratory organelle
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: mitokondrium — respiratory organelle
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: mitokondrie — respiratory organelle
  • Occitan: mitocondria — respiratory organelle
  • Persian: میتوکندری (mitokondri) — respiratory organelle
  • Persian: راکیزه (râkize) — respiratory organelle
  • Polish: mitochondrium — respiratory organelle
  • Portuguese: mitocôndria — respiratory organelle
  • Russian: митохо́ндрия (mitoxóndrija) — respiratory organelle
  • Serbo-Croatian: митохондрије — respiratory organelle
  • Serbo-Croatian: mitohondrije — respiratory organelle
  • Slovak: mitochondria — respiratory organelle
  • Spanish: mitocondria — respiratory organelle
  • Swedish: mitokondrie — respiratory organelle
  • Tagalog: sulidlawas — respiratory organelle
  • Thai: ไมโทคอนเดรีย (maitohkondàyreey) — respiratory organelle
  • Turkish: mitokondri — respiratory organelle
  • Ukrainian: мітохондрія (mitoxondrija) — respiratory organelle
  • Vietnamese: ti thể — respiratory organelle
  • Welsh: mitocondrion — respiratory organelle