Word.ws English Dictionary

biolistics

biolistics noun: the introduction of DNA into a plant or animal cell by coating it onto the surface of a pellet and firing it into the tissue at high velocity.

Noun

biolistics (uncountable)

  1. The introduction of DNA into a plant or animal cell by coating it onto the surface of a pellet and firing it into the tissue at high velocity.

Origin of biolistics

Blend of bio- + ballistics, itself from ballista + -ics or by surface analysis, ballistic + -s.

Questions about biolistics

What does biolistics mean?
Biolistics means the introduction of DNA into a plant or animal cell by coating it onto the surface of a pellet and firing it into the tissue at high velocity.
What part of speech is biolistics?
Biolistics is a noun.

Words near biolistics in the dictionary

  1. biolipids
  2. bioliquid
  3. bioliquids
  4. biolistic
  5. biolistically
  6. biolistics
  7. biolith
  8. biolithic
  9. biolithite
  10. biolithites
  11. bioliths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: biolistics (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: “biolistics.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/biolistics. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.