Word.ws English Dictionary

nucleosome

nucleosome noun: any of the subunits that repeat in chromatin; a coil of DNA surrounding a core of eight histones.

Noun

nucleosome (plural nucleosomes)

  1. Any of the subunits that repeat in chromatin; a coil of DNA surrounding a core of eight histones.
    • We have termed these particles “nucleosomes,” to evoke their nuclear origin and their resemblance to the “nu” (ν) bodies described by Olins and Olins (1974).1975, P. Oudet, M. Gross-Bellard, P.Champon, “Electron Microscopic and Biochemical Evidence that Chromosome Structure Is a Repeating Unit”, in Cell, →PMID, page 9

Forms of nucleosome

pluralnucleosomes

Origin of nucleosome

From nucleo- + -some, and to evoke the older name nu body. Coined by P. Oudet et al. in 1975 (see quotation below).

Words formed from nucleosome

Questions about nucleosome

What does nucleosome mean?
Nucleosome means any of the subunits that repeat in chromatin; a coil of DNA surrounding a core of eight histones.
What part of speech is nucleosome?
Nucleosome is a noun.
What is the plural of nucleosome?
The plural of nucleosome is nucleosomes.

Words near nucleosome in the dictionary

  1. nucleoskeletons
  2. nucleosol
  3. nucleosolic
  4. nucleosols
  5. nucleosomal
  6. nucleosome
  7. nucleosomes
  8. nucleosomic
  9. nucleostemin
  10. nucleosyl
  11. nucleosyls

Source and license

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