Noun: gene
Sample Sentences
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Near-synonym: cistron (often synonymous)
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The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation. [2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10:]
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Holonym: locus
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A change in a gene is reflected in the protein or RNA molecule that it codes for.
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A length of DNA is divided into segments called chromosomes and shorter individual units called genes. [2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 7:]
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One way to define a gene (there are many, and they are not all equivalent) is as the bit of DNA that contains the information needed to make a specific protein or a functional RNA molecule. [2025, The Economist staff, “Primer 1: Nucleic acids and proteins”, in The Economist (Biology Primers series), retrieved 18 Oct 2025:]
Nouns inflected like gene
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From German Gen, from Ancient Greek γενεά (geneá, “generation, descent”), from the aorist infinitive of γίγνομαι (gígnomai, “to come into being”). Coined by Danish botanist Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen in 1909, in a German-language publication, from the last syllable of pangene. See: German Nouns '
Gen', Ancient Greek Nouns '
γενεά'.
Verbs referencing "gene"
Polish Nouns
gen, Hungarian Nouns
gén, Irish Nouns
géin.