opsin
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of opsin
First recorded in 1950–55; probably back formation from rhodopsin
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.
A research team led by Professors Mitsumasa Koyanagi and Akihisa Terakita at OMU's Graduate School of Science identified a specific opsin in dragonflies that responds to light at around 720 nm.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 9, 2026
In 2018, researchers found that hogfish skin expressed a gene for an opsin protein, which is the same kind of protein that senses color in the retinas of eyes.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 22, 2023
In a 2018 study, Schweikert's team found hogfish possess an opsin specifically sensitive to blue light in their skin, she said.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2023
The genes that code for each opsin has seven sites in the gene that are polymorphic: They can have different letters of DNA.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 1, 2022
A very interesting Greek inscription that reads the same either backwards or forwards is found in many English and foreign churches—"Nipson anonemata me monan opsin."
From Proverb Lore Many sayings, wise or otherwise, on many subjects, gleaned from many sources by Hulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
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.
