chiral
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
- chirality noun
Etymology
Origin of chiral
1894; chir- < Greek cheír hand + -al 1; coined by Lord Kelvin
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.
Many medicines are chiral, meaning they exist in two mirror-image forms -- similar to a pair of hands -- that can behave differently inside the body.
From Science Daily
The mirror protease only works on mirror peptides, which means, by the law of mirror-image symmetry that applies to chiral molecules, that regular proteases would likewise be unable to cut down mirror-image peptides.
From Salon
Your hands are chiral body parts, because when placed over one another, they line up perfectly yet are shaped reflectively.
From Salon
Effectively, and functionally, a molecule and its chiral mirror image are two different molecules.
From Salon
A particular advantage of the new technique is that it also works with chiral antiferromagnetic materials.
From Science Daily
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.
