molecule

See also: molécule

English

Structural formula and two molecule models (ball-and-stick and space-filling) of caffeine.

Etymology

From French molécule, from New Latin molecula (“a molecule”), diminutive of Latin moles (“a mass”); see mole + -cule.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒl.ə.kjuːl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑl.ə.kjul/
• Hyphenation: mol‧e‧cule

Noun

molecule (plural molecules or moleculae or moleculæ)

1. (chemistry) The smallest particle of a specific element or compound that retains the chemical properties of that element or compound; two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:molecule

   Hyponym: macromolecule

   Meronym: atom

   Hydrogen chloride is a diatomic molecule, consisting of a hydrogen atom and a chlorine atom.

   • 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist‎^[1], Sigma Xi, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 September 2013:

     The critical component of the photosynthetic system is the “water-oxidizing complex”, made up of manganese atoms and a calcium atom. This system splits water molecules and delivers some of their electrons to other molecules that help build up carbohydrates.

2. A tiny amount.

   Synonyms: atom, particle; see also Thesaurus:modicum

Derived terms

• antimolecule
• astromolecule
• bimolecule
• biomolecule
• cell adhesion molecule
• cell-adhesion molecule
• fuel molecule
• giant molecule
• glycomolecule
• gram molecule
• immunomolecule
• metamolecule
• micromolecule
• molfile
• nanomolecule
• phytomolecule
• polycule
• polymolecule
• protomolecule
• pseudomolecule
• quasimolecule
• Rydberg molecule
• single-molecule magnet
• small molecule drug
• submolecule
• supermolecule
• supramolecule

 

Related terms

• molecular

Translations

group of atoms held together by chemical bonds

• Afrikaans: molekuul
• Albanian: molekulë (sq) f
• Amharic: ሞለኪውል (moläkiwl)
• Arabic: جُزَيْء m (juzayʔ)
• Aragonese: molecula
• Armenian: մոլեկուլ (hy) (molekul)
• Assamese: অণু (onu)
• Asturian: molécula (ast) f
• Azerbaijani: molekul
• Basque: molekula (eu)
• Belarusian: мале́кула f (maljékula)
• Bengali: অণু (bn) (onu)
• Bulgarian: моле́кула (bg) f (molékula)
• Burmese: မော်လီကျူး (my) (mauli-kyu:)
• Carpathian Rusyn: моле́кула f (molékula)
• Catalan: molècula (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分子 (zh) (fēnzǐ)

• Czech: molekula (cs) f
• Danish: molekyle (da) n
• Dutch: molecuul (nl) n
• Esperanto: molekulo
• Faroese: mýl (fo) n
• Finnish: molekyyli (fi)
• French: molécule (fr) f
• Friulian: molecule f
• Galician: molécula (gl) f
• Georgian: მოლეკულა (moleḳula)
• German: Molekül (de) n
• Greek: μόριο (el) n (mório)
• Gujarati: અણુ (aṇu)
• Hebrew: מוֹלֵקוּלָה (he) f (molékula)
• Hindi: अणु (hi) m (aṇu), व्यूहाणु m (vyūhāṇu)
• Hungarian: molekula (hu)
• Icelandic: sameind (is) f, mólekúl n
• Ido: molekulo (io)
• Indonesian: molekul (id)
• Irish: móilín (ga) m
• Italian: molecola (it) f
• Japanese: 分子 (ja) (ぶんし, bunshi)
• Javanese: molekul
• Kannada: ಅಣು (kn) (aṇu)
• Kashubian: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: молекула (kk) (molekula)
• Khmer: អណូ (km) (ʼaʼnou), ម៉ូលេគុល (mouleikul)
• Korean: 분자(分子) (ko) (bunja)
• Kyrgyz: молекула (molekula)
• Lao: ໂມເລກຸນ (lo) (mō lē kun), ອະນຸ (ʼa nu)
• Latin: molecula f
• Latvian: molekula f
• Lithuanian: molekulė f
• Macedonian: молекула f (molekula)
• Malagasy: môlekiola (mg)
• Malay: molekul (ms)
• Malayalam: തന്മാത്ര (ml) (tanmātra)
• Manx: co-vreneen m
• Marathi: रेणू m (reṇū)
• Mongolian: молекул (mn) (molekul)
• Nepali: अणु (ne) (aṇu)
• Newar: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: molétchule f (Jersey)
• Norwegian: molekyl (no) n

  Nynorsk: molekyl n

• Occitan: molecula (oc)
• Ossetian: молекулӕ (molekulæ)
• Pali: aṇu
• Pashto: مالېکول m (mālekúl)
• Persian: مولکول (fa) (molekul)
• Polish: cząsteczka (pl) f, molekuła (pl) f
• Portuguese: molécula (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਅਣੂ (pa) (aṇū)
• Romanian: moleculă (ro) f
• Russian: моле́кула (ru) f (molékula)
• Sanskrit: घनाणु m (ghanāṇu), अणु (sa) m (aṇu)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: молекула f

  Roman: molekula (sh) f

• Sinhalese: අණුව (si) (aṇuwa)
• Slovak: molekula (sk)
• Slovene: molekula (sl)
• Sorbian:

  Lower: molekul

  Upper: molekul

• Spanish: molécula (es) f
• Sundanese: molekul
• Swahili: molekuli
• Swedish: molekyl (sv) c
• Tagalog: molekula
• Tajik: молекула (molekula)
• Tamil: மூலக்கூறு (ta) (mūlakkūṟu)
• Tatar: молекула (molekula)
• Telugu: అణువు (te) (aṇuvu)
• Thai: โมเลกุล (th) (moo-lee-gun), อณู (à-nuu)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: molekül (tr)
• Turkmen: molekula
• Ukrainian: моле́кула f (molékula)
• Urdu: انو m (anu), سالمہ f (sālma)
• Uyghur: مولېكۇلا (molëkula)
• Uzbek: molekula (uz)
• Vietnamese: phân tử (vi) (分子)
• Volapük: mölekül (vo)
• Waray-Waray: molekula
• Welsh: moleciwl (cy) m
• Yiddish: מאָלעקול m (molekul)

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmoː.ləˈky.lə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mo‧le‧cu‧le

Noun

molecule n or f or m (plural moleculen or molecules, diminutive moleculetje n)

1. Alternative form of molecuul

Friulian

Noun

molecule f (plural moleculis)

1. molecule