Standard Lemma guide

oncogene

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.

  • UK: /ˈɒŋkə(ʊ)dʒiːn/
  • CMU ARPABET: AA1 NG K OW0 JH IY2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any gene that contributes to the conversion of a normal cell into a cancerous cell when mutated or expressed at high levels.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, genetics, medicine, natural-sciences, oncology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a gene that disposes normal cells to change into cancerous tumor cells

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: transforming gene

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: gene, cistron, factor

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek ὄγκος (ónkos)der. New Latin onco-der. English onco- English gene English oncogene From onco- + gene.

Across languages

Translations

11 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 癌基因 (áijīyīn) — gene
  • Chinese Mandarin: 致癌基因 (zhì'ái jīyīn) — gene
  • Czech: onkogen — gene
  • Finnish: syöpägeeni — gene
  • Finnish: onkogeeni — gene
  • French: oncogène — gene
  • Hungarian: onkogén — gene
  • Italian: oncogene — gene
  • Japanese: 癌遺伝子 (gan idenshi) — gene
  • Portuguese: oncogene — gene
  • Spanish: oncogén — gene