Word.ws English Dictionary

beta-lactamase

beta-lactamase noun: an enzyme produced by certain bacteria, responsible for their resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin.

Noun

beta-lactamase (plural beta-lactamases)

  1. An enzyme produced by certain bacteria, responsible for their resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin.

Forms of beta-lactamase

pluralbeta-lactamases
alternative formβ-lactamase
alternative formbetalactamase

Origin of beta-lactamase

From beta-lactam + -ase.

Questions about beta-lactamase

What does beta-lactamase mean?
Beta-lactamase means an enzyme produced by certain bacteria, responsible for their resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin.
What part of speech is beta-lactamase?
Beta-lactamase is a noun.
What is the plural of beta-lactamase?
The plural of beta-lactamase is beta-lactamases.

Words near beta-lactamase in the dictionary

  1. beta-glucan
  2. beta-glucans
  3. beta-glucosidase
  4. beta-hydroxyisovalerylshikonin
  5. beta-lactam
  6. beta-lactamase
  7. beta-lactamases
  8. beta-lactamic
  9. beta-lactams
  10. beta-lipoprotein
  11. beta-lipoproteins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beta-lactamase (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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Cite this entry: “beta-lactamase.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beta-lactamase. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.