Showing results for tautomer. Search instead for tautomers.

tautomer

American

[taw-tuh-mer] / ˈtɔ tə mər /

noun

Chemistry.

a compound that exhibits tautomerism.

tautomer British

/ ˈtɔːtəmə /

noun

either of the two forms of a chemical compound that exhibits tautomerism

"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

Etymology

Origin of tautomer

First recorded in 1900–05; back formation from tautomerism

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.

This hypothesis, called the tautomer hypothesis, says the standard four nucleotides can form mismatched pairs due to tautomerization, or the tendency of nucleotides to oscillate between several structural variants with the same composition.

From Science Daily • Dec. 13, 2023

Such an altered base pair, known as a tautomer, can quickly jump back to its original arrangement.

From Scientific American • Sep. 21, 2022

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