Phrase guide

nucleic acid

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: /njuːˈkliː.ɪk ˈæsɪd/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /njuːˈkleɪ.ɪk ˈæsɪd/
  • US: /nuˈkleɪ.ɪk ˈæsɪd/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any acidic, chainlike biological macromolecule consisting of multiple repeat units of phosphoric acid, sugar and purine and pyrimidine bases; they are involved in the preservation, replication and expression of hereditary information in every living cell

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

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

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

(biochemistry) any of various macromolecules composed of nucleotide chains that are vital constituents of all living cells

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: macromolecule, supermolecule

History

Etymology

nucleic + acid; named for the fact that in eukaryotes, some of the important actions of such acids are especially associated with the nucleus of the cell.

Across languages

Translations

44 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Basque: azido nukleiko — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Catalan: àcid nucleic — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Chinese Cantonese: 核酸 (hat6 syun1) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Hakka Chinese: 核酸 (het-sôn) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Chinese: 核酸 (hu̍t-sng, he̍k-sng) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Chinese Mandarin: 核酸 (hésuān) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Teochew: 核酸 (hêg4 seng1) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Czech: nukleová kyselina — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Danish: nukleinsyre — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Dutch: nucleïnezuur — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Dutch: kernzuur — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Esperanto: nuklea acido — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Faroese: kjarnasýra — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Finnish: nukleiinihappo — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Finnish: tumahappo — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • French: acide nucléique — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Galician: ácido nucleico — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • German: Nukleinsäure — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Greek: νουκλεϊκό οξύ (noukleïkó oxý) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Hungarian: nukleinsav — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Icelandic: kjarnsýra — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Indonesian: asam nukleat — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Irish: aigéad núicléasach — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Italian: acido nucleico — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Japanese: 核酸 (kakusan) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Kazakh: нуклеин қышқылы (nuklein qyşqyly) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Korean: 핵산 (haeksan) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Northern Kurdish: asîda nûkleyî — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Northern Kurdish: navketirş — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Malay: asid nukleik — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Mongolian: нуклейн хүчил (nuklejn xüčil) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Mongolian: бөөм хүчил (bööm xüčil) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nukleinsyre — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: nukleinsyre — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Polish: kwas nukleinowy — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Portuguese: ácido nucleico — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Romanian: acid nucleic — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Russian: нуклеи́новая кислота́ (nukleínovaja kislotá) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Slovak: nukleová kyselina — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Spanish: ácido nucleico — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Swedish: nukleinsyra — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Thai: กรดนิวคลีอิก (gròt-niu-klii-ìk) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Ukrainian: нуклеї́нова кислота́ (nuklejínova kyslotá) — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule
  • Vietnamese: axit nucleic — acidic chainlike biological macromolecule