Word.ws English Dictionary

Barr body

Barr body noun: a sex chromosome inactivated by packing in heterochromatin.

Noun

Barr body (plural Barr bodies)

  1. A sex chromosome inactivated by packing in heterochromatin.
    • Men with Klinefelter syndrome (47,XXY karyotype) have a single Barr body, whereas women with a 47,XXX karyotype have two Barr bodies.

Forms of Barr body

pluralBarr bodies

Origin of Barr body

Named after discoverer Murray Barr.

Questions about Barr body

What does Barr body mean?
Barr body means a sex chromosome inactivated by packing in heterochromatin.
What part of speech is Barr body?
Barr body is a noun.
What is the plural of Barr body?
The plural of Barr body is Barr bodies.

Words near Barr body in the dictionary

  1. barquette moulds
  2. barquettes
  3. barquillite
  4. barr
  5. Barr bodies
  6. Barr body
  7. Barr trilobite
  8. Barr trilobites
  9. barra
  10. barra boy
  11. barra boys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Barr body (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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