Standard Lemma guide

phycobilin

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.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of a group of bilins (pigments derived from porphyrins) found in some photosynthetic algae; they are open-chain tetrapyrroles related to mammalian bile pigments.

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

water-soluble proteinaceous pigments found in red algae and cyanobacteria

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: pigment

History

Etymology

From international scientific vocabulary, reflecting New Latin roots/stems referring to plants and bile. By surface analysis, phyco- + bilin = phyco- + bili- + -in, although according to American Heritage Dictionary, bilin was back-formed from phycobilin (as opposed to phycobilin being derived from bilin as surface analysis suggests).

Across languages

Translations

1 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Italian: ficobilina — highly coloured pigment found in photosynthetic algae