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protease

American

[proh-tee-eys, -eyz] / ˈproʊ tiˌeɪs, -ˌeɪz /

noun

Biochemistry.

any of a group of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolytic degradation of proteins or polypeptides to smaller amino acid polymers.

protease British

/ ˈprəʊtɪˌeɪs /

noun

any enzyme involved in proteolysis

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

protease Scientific

/ prō′tē-ās′ /

Any of various enzymes that bring about the breakdown of proteins into peptides or amino acids by hydrolysis. Pepsin is an example of a protease.

Etymology

Origin of protease

First recorded in 1900–05; prote(in) + -ase

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.

Recently, researchers cloned and expressed another rattlesnake serine protease known as cholinein-1.

From Science Daily • Nov. 18, 2025

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 • Jan. 18, 2025

These nanoprobes yield 100-fold higher fluorescence signals compared to commercial fluorescence-based protease sensors.

From Science Daily • Dec. 13, 2023

When this happens, the protease Notopleural comes into play.

From Science Daily • Oct. 25, 2023

The best-known example of this type of enzymes is the protease of yeast; but similar ones may be found in germinating seeds.

From The Chemistry of Plant Life by Thatcher, Roscoe Wilfred

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023