genome

American  

[jee-nohm] / ˈdʒi noʊm /

Also genom

noun

Genetics.

• genomes
  plural

1. a full set of chromosomes; all the inheritable traits of an organism.

---

genome British  

/ ˈdʒiːnəʊm /

noun

1. the full complement of genetic material within an organism

2. all the genes comprising a haploid set of chromosomes

---

genome Scientific  

/ jē′nōm /

1. The total amount of genetic information in the chromosomes of an organism, including its genes and DNA sequences. The genome of eukaryotes is made up of a single, haploid set of chromosomes that is contained in the nucleus of every cell and exists in two copies in all cells except reproductive and red blood cells. The human genome is made up of about 20,000 to 25,000 genes.

2. Compare proteome

---

genome Cultural  

1. The sum of all information contained in the DNA for any living thing. The sequence of all the nucleotides in all the chromosomes of an organism.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• genomic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• genomes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of genome

First recorded in 1925–30; from German Genom, from Gen gene + (Chromos)om chromosome

Explanation

The human genome is the map of your DNA, the double helix that contains all your genes. Your genome is all the genetic material contained in your 23 pairs of chromosomes, a total of more than 20,000 genes. Every organism has its own unique genome. "The Human Genome Project," completed in 2003, was an international effort to identify all the genes in human DNA and to determine the sequences of the 3 billion (yes, billion) base pairs — the smaller units that make up DNA. It took 13 years. Genome research has helped diagnose disease and find genetic markers for certain diseases.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

genome genomes

It places the enormous variety of animal genome structures onto a single map.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026

"It also lets us ask where genome evolution might go next and enables us to identify key measures for the conservation of animal biodiversity."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026

By highlighting groups with especially distinctive genome organization, the framework could help researchers identify evolutionarily unusual animals that may warrant greater scientific or conservation attention.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026

"It basically means there is a missing genome in my DNA, so my body isn't built fully as a normal person's body would be," Harley said.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

It can refer to one gene, a configuration of genes, or even an entire genome.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Researchers are using species recently approved for human consumption as models and comparing the genomes of farmed insects with those of pre-domestication individuals preserved in entomological collections.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026

This gives researchers a shared coordinate system for comparing the rapidly growing number of chromosome-scale animal genomes.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026

Thousands of animal genomes have now been sequenced, but comparing their long-term evolution has remained difficult.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026

The researchers used their model to generate genomes based on the template virus and then synthesized the DNA and put the AI-generated viruses into bacterial cells.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

The similarities between genomes must explain the likeness between parents and their children, and mutations and recombination might explain their differences.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee