Standard Lemma guide

nucleotide

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)kliəˌtaɪd/
  • US: /ˈn(j)u(ː)kliəˌtaɪd/
  • US: /ˈn(j)u(ː)klioʊˌtaɪd/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: N UW1 K L IY0 AH0 T AY2 D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The monomer constituting DNA or RNA biopolymer molecules. Each nucleotide consists of a nitrogenous heterocyclic base (or nucleobase), which can be either a double-ringed purine or a single-ringed pyrimidine; a five-carbon pentose sugar (deoxyribose in DNA or ribose in RNA); and a phosphate group.

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 phosphoric ester of a nucleoside; the basic structural unit of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: base

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: ester

Narrower terms: base pair, adenosine monophosphate, AMP, adenylic acid, adenosine diphosphate, ADP, adenosine triphosphate, ATP, deoxyadenosine monophosphate, A, deoxycytidine monophosphate, C, deoxyguanosine monophosphate, G, deoxythymidine monophosphate, T, muton, uracil, U

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *knuks Latin nux Latin nucleuslbor. English nucleus English nucleo- Proto-Indo-European *dheh1-der. Proto-Italic *-iðos Latin -idusder. English -ide English nucleotide From nucleo- (“relating to the nucleus”) + -ide (“chemical suffix”).

Across languages

Translations

27 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: nucleòtid — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Chinese Cantonese: 核苷酸 (hat6 gam1 syun1) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Chinese: 核苷酸 (hu̍t-kam-sng, he̍k-kam-sng) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Chinese Mandarin: 核苷酸 (hégānsuān) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Czech: nukleotid — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Esperanto: nukleotido — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Finnish: nukleotidi — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • French: nucléotide — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • German: Nukleotid — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Greek: νουκλεοτίδιο (noukleotídio) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Hungarian: nukleotid — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Icelandic: kirni — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Icelandic: núkleótíð — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Indonesian: nukleotida — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Italian: nucleotide — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Japanese: ヌクレオチド (nukureochido) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Khmer: នុយក្លេអូទីត (nuykleeʼoutiit) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Korean: 뉴클레오티드 (nyukeulle'otideu) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Māori: pūiokarihi — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Polish: nukleotyd — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Portuguese: nucleotídeo — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Romanian: nucleotidă — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Russian: нуклеоти́д (nukleotíd) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Spanish: nucleótido — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Swedish: nukleotid — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Turkish: nükleotit — monomer constituting DNA or RNA
  • Ukrainian: нуклеоти́д (nukleotýd) — monomer constituting DNA or RNA