noun
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Etymology
Origin of biochemistry
Explanation
Biochemistry is the field of science that explores the molecules and processes that occur in living things. The term biochemistry comes from adding bio-, or "life," to chemistry, which is the science that deals with the composition, structures, and properties of substances, along with the reactions and transformations they undergo in combination. Looking at the human body through the lens of biochemistry can help us understand processes like digestion and nutrition. Proteins, carbohydrates, and other nutrients are all chemicals — and it's thanks to biochemical reactions that your body's cells are able to absorb glucose and create energy to keep you going.
Vocabulary lists containing biochemistry
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He was in the library prepping for a biochemistry exam.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
After she started at the University of East Anglia, Pia Subong, 21, says she realised that biochemistry wasn't the right course for her and so switched to film and English.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Quantum has the potential to move the needle on research in national security, chemistry, biochemistry, pharmaceuticals and finance — areas, Newman explained, where outcomes can be “infinitely complex.”
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
She’s a Sunday-school teacher and a biochemistry major nearly finished with her college degree.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
He had probably completed biology by now, she guessed, and would be studying higher mathematics, or astrophysics, or biochemistry, one of the subjects that was whispered about, when they were young, as incomprehensibly difficult.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
The pests are also attracted to other bodily emissions, such as sweat and heat, he said, in addition to individual biochemistries.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 28, 2021
When you share a smile or laugh with someone face to face, a discernible synchrony emerges between you, as your gestures and biochemistries, even your respective neural firings, come to mirror each other.
From Forbes ● Apr. 25, 2013
By 2004, he was wondering whether life could have originated on our planet more than once, with each lineage based on utterly different biochemistries, perhaps even without DNA or RNA.
From Nature ● Jun. 1, 2011
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
