Standard Lemma guide

nucleoside

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.

  • /ˈn(j)u(ː)kliəˌsaɪd/
  • US: /ˈn(j)u(ː)kliəˌsaɪd/
  • US: /ˈn(j)u(ː)klioʊˌsaɪd/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

an organic molecule in which a nitrogenous heterocyclic base (or nucleobase), which can be either a double-ringed purine or a single-ringed pyrimidine, is covalently attached to a five-carbon pentose sugar (deoxyribose in DNA or ribose in RNA). When the phosphate group is covalently attached to the pentose sugar, it forms a nucleotide.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

a glycoside formed by partial hydrolysis of a nucleic acid

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: glycoside

Narrower terms: adenosine, inosine, deoxyadenosine, deoxycytidine, cytidine, deoxyguanosine, guanosine, deoxythymidine, thymidine

History

Etymology

Probably from nucleo- + (glyc)oside.

Across languages

Translations

7 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 核苷 (hégān) — organic molecule
  • Finnish: nukleosidi — organic molecule
  • Italian: nucleoside — organic molecule
  • Japanese: ヌクレオシド (nukureoshido) — organic molecule
  • Khmer: ខាងស្នូល (khang snol) — organic molecule
  • Polish: nukleozyd — organic molecule
  • Turkish: nükleozit — organic molecule