Word.ws English Dictionary

enkephalin

enkephalin noun: any of a group of pentapeptide endorphins that have opiate-like effects.

Noun

enkephalin (plural enkephalins)

  1. Any of a group of pentapeptide endorphins that have opiate-like effects
    • Some of the more marginal players start in as early as maybe twelve, I'm sorry to say, particularly 'drines before matches and then enkephaline after […]1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 67

Forms of enkephalin

pluralenkephalins

Origin of enkephalin

From Ancient Greek ἐγκέφαλος (enképhalos, “brain”) + -in.

Words formed from enkephalin

Questions about enkephalin

What does enkephalin mean?
Enkephalin means any of a group of pentapeptide endorphins that have opiate-like effects.
What part of speech is enkephalin?
Enkephalin is a noun.
What is the plural of enkephalin?
The plural of enkephalin is enkephalins.

Words near enkephalin in the dictionary

  1. enkelytin
  2. enkennel
  3. enkenneled
  4. enkennelled
  5. enkennels
  6. enkephalin
  7. enkephalinase
  8. enkephalinases
  9. enkephaline
  10. enkephalinergic
  11. enkephalines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: enkephalin (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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