phosphatase
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.60 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of several enzymes that hydrolyze phosphate esters, and are important in the metabolism of carbohydrates, nucleotides and phospholipids, and in the formation of bone.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "These results are in accordance with the observations of Pirani et al., who found that in normal pregnancy there was no correlation between serum heat-stable alkaline phosphatase activity and crude baby weight or placental weight."
Etymology
Etymology tree English phosphate Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *dwísder. Ancient Greek διά (diá) Ancient Greek δῐᾰ- (dĭă-) Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Indo-European *stísteh₂ti Proto-Hellenic *hístāmi Ancient Greek ῐ̔́στημῐ (hĭ́stēmĭ) Ancient Greek δῐῐ̈́στημῐ (dĭĭ̈́stēmĭ) Ancient Greek δῐᾰ́στᾰσῐς (dĭắstăsĭs) English diastase English -ase English phosphatase From phosphate + -ase.