Word.ws English Dictionary

mercaptopurine

UK/mɜːˌkap.tə(ʊ)ˈp(j)ʊə.ɹiːn/US/mɚˌkæp.təˈpjʊɹˌin/

mercaptopurine noun: an thiol antimetabolite C₅H₄N₄S that interferes especially with the metabolism of purine bases and the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and that is sometimes used in the treatment of acute leukemia.

mercaptopurine: an thiol antimetabolite C₅H₄N₄S that interferes especially with the metabolism of purine bases and...
Image: Fvasconcellos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mercaptopurine (countable and uncountable, plural mercaptopurines)

  1. An thiol antimetabolite C₅H₄N₄S that interferes especially with the metabolism of purine bases and the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and that is sometimes used in the treatment of acute leukemia.

Forms of mercaptopurine

pluralmercaptopurines
alternative form6-mercaptopurine

Origin of mercaptopurine

From mercapto- + purine.

Questions about mercaptopurine

What does mercaptopurine mean?
Mercaptopurine means an thiol antimetabolite C₅H₄N₄S that interferes especially with the metabolism of purine bases and the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and that is sometimes used in the treatment of acute leukemia.
What part of speech is mercaptopurine?
Mercaptopurine is a noun.
How do you pronounce mercaptopurine?
Mercaptopurine is pronounced /mɜːˌkap.tə(ʊ)ˈp(j)ʊə.ɹiːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of mercaptopurine?
The plural of mercaptopurine is mercaptopurines.

Words near mercaptopurine in the dictionary

  1. mercaptopropionic acid
  2. mercaptopropyl
  3. mercaptopropyls
  4. mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane
  5. mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilanes
  6. mercaptopurine
  7. mercaptopurines
  8. mercaptopyridine
  9. mercaptopyridines
  10. mercaptopyruvate
  11. mercaptopyruvates

Source and license

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