molecular
Americanadjective
adjective
-
of or relating to molecules
molecular hydrogen
-
logic (of a sentence, formula, etc) capable of analysis into atomic formulae of the appropriate kind
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of molecular
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How does molecular compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Use the adjective molecular to describe something that has to do with or is made up of molecules. If you're studying molecular biology, you're focusing on the molecules that make up living things. When a scientist studies things on a molecular level, she's looking at them up close, examining their cells. The adjective molecular comes up most often in biology and chemistry, and it always describes the very smallest units that make up organisms or elements. Molecular comes from the noun molecule, which means "extremely minute particle," from the Latin molecula, "tiny mass."
Vocabulary lists containing molecular
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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.
On one hand, many molecular changes that become fixed still look neutral when scientists compare genomes.
From Science Daily • May 29, 2026
These molecular "traffic jams" reduced the production of healthy proteins and increased protein aggregation.
From Science Daily • May 29, 2026
In this view, harmful mutations are usually removed by natural selection, while truly beneficial mutations are so rare that most lasting molecular changes are expected to be neutral.
From Science Daily • May 29, 2026
For more than half a century, one of the most influential ideas in molecular evolution has been the Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution.
From Science Daily • May 29, 2026
But de Vries’s conjecture predated the molecular definition of the gene.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
