gene
/d͡ʒiːn/
gene noun: a theoretical unit of heredity of living organisms which may take several values and (in principle) predetermines a precise trait of an organism's form (phenotype), such as hair color.
Noun
gene (plural genes)
- A theoretical unit of heredity of living organisms which may take several values and (in principle) predetermines a precise trait of an organism's form (phenotype), such as hair color.
- Near-synonym: cistron (often synonymous)
- The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10
- Synonyms:
- cistron
- A segment of DNA or RNA from a cell's or an organism's genome, that may take several forms and thus parameterizes a phenomenon, such as (often) the structure of a protein.
- Holonym: locus
- A change in a gene is reflected in the protein or RNA molecule that it codes for.
Proper noun capitalized: Gene
IPA/ˈd͡ʒiːn/
Gene (plural Genes)
- A diminutive of the male given name Eugene, also used as a formal male given name.
- A diminutive of the female given name Genevieve
- A diminutive of the female given name Eugenia
- A surname
gene meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
gene in Hindi
- unit of heredity
- जीन jīn, वंशाणु vañśāṇu, पित्रैक pitraik
gene in Tamil
- unit of heredity
- மரபணு marapaṇu, பரம்பரை அலகு paramparai alaku
gene in Urdu
- unit of heredity
- جین jīn, وراثہ warāsā
gene in Bengali
- unit of heredity
- জিন jin, বংশাণু boṅśanu
More languagesFewer languages
- gene in Telugu
- జన్యువు janyuvu
- gene in Malayalam
- ജീൻ jīṉ
- gene in Kannada
- ವಂಶವಾಹಿ vaṃśavāhi
- gene in Gujarati
- જનીન janīn
- gene in Odia
- ଜିନ୍
- gene in Sinhala
- ජාන jāna
- gene in Nepali
- वंशाणु vaṅśāṇu
- gene in Tagalog
- hene
- gene in Arabic
- مُوَرِّثَة muwarriṯa, جِين jīn
- gene in Malay
- gen
- gene in Indonesian
- gen
- gene in Persian
- ژن žen
- gene in Thai
- หน่วยพันธุกรรม nùay pan-tú-gam
- gene in Vietnamese
- gen, di tố
Examples of gene in a sentence
- A length of DNA is divided into segments called chromosomes and shorter individual units called genes.2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 7:
- One way to define a gene (there are many, and they are not all equivalent) is as the bit of DNA that contains the information needed to make a specific protein or a functional RNA molecule.2025, The Economist staff, “Primer 1: Nucleic acids and proteins”, in The Economist (Biology Primers series), retrieved 18 Oct 2025:
Synonyms of gene
Forms of gene
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | genes |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Genes |
Origin of gene
From German Gen, from Ancient Greek γενεά (geneá, “generation, descent”), from the aorist infinitive of γίγνομαι (gígnomai, “to come into being”). Coined by Danish botanist Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen in 1909, in a German-language publication, from the last syllable of pangene.
Words formed from gene
- algeny
- Angelina Jolie gene
- antigene
- aristogene
- atrogene
- cene
- cisgene
- control gene
- cream gene
- cytogene
- eigengene
- electrochemogene
- electrogene
- endogene
- gene-altered
- gene bank
- gene cassette
- genechip
- gene complex
- gene drive
- gene-engineered
- gene expression
- gene family
- geneflow
- gene flow
- gene frequency
- gene gun
- geneless
- genelet
- genelike
- gene-manipulated
- gene-modified
- gene-napper
- gene pool
- gene product
- generich
- geneset
- gene silencing
- gene splicing
- genet
- gene therapy
- genetic
- geneticist
- genetics
- gene transcription
- gene transfer
- gene trap
- genewise
- genic
- genism
- genome
- genometastasis
- genomics
- gerontogene
- glycogene
- histocompatibility gene
- homeobox gene
- horizontal gene transfer
- hox gene
- immunogene
Phrases with gene
Words that rhyme with gene
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- glean
- between
- byzantine
- canteen
- greene
- preen
- Racine
- careen
- intervene
- lean
- wean
- Christine
- obscene
- routine
- skene
- spleen
- submarine
- cuisine
- gasoline
- irene
- red bean
- serene
- -ene
- baleen
- demean
- eleventeen
- fascine
- gombeen
- latrine
- pristine
- Qazvin
- sheen
- tangerine
- unclean
- unseen
- vaccine
- amine
- aquamarine
- Beane
- beseen
- bottine
- chopine
- Enigma machine
- Eugene
- in between
- internecine
- jean
- lien
Questions about gene
- What does gene mean?
- Gene means a theoretical unit of heredity of living organisms which may take several values and (in principle) predetermines a precise trait of an organism's form (phenotype), such as hair color.
- What is gene in Hindi?
- Gene in Hindi is जीन (jīn), वंशाणु (vañśāṇu), पित्रैक (pitraik). See Gene meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use gene in a sentence?
- A length of DNA is divided into segments called chromosomes and shorter individual units called genes.
- What part of speech is gene?
- Gene can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce gene?
- Gene is pronounced /d͡ʒiːn/.
- What is the plural of gene?
- The plural of gene is genes.
Words near gene in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gene (page history and authors); Gene (page history and authors); gene (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-gene.ogg.
Cite this entry: “gene.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gene. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.