Word.ws English Dictionary

phenylketonuria

Syllables: phe·nyl·ke·ton·uriaUK/fɛnaɪ̯lkiːtəˈnjʊə̯ɹɪ.ə//fɛnəlkitəˈnʊɹi.ə/

phenylketonuria noun: a metabolic disorder in which individuals lack the liver enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) which is needed to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine.

Noun

phenylketonuria (countable and uncountable, plural phenylketonurias)

  1. A metabolic disorder in which individuals lack the liver enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) which is needed to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine.
    • Nash Hensley, of South Bend, Indiana, was born with two genetic disorders: achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder characterized by dwarfism, and phenylketonuria, or PKU, which causes the phenylalanine amino acid to build up in the body, according to the Mayo Clinic. PKU is caused by a defect in the...2021 April 11, Rachel Trent, “How a 6-year-old with two rare disorders inspired a country song about Kenny Chesney”, in CNN, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2022
    Synonyms:
    PKU

Synonyms of phenylketonuria

Forms of phenylketonuria

pluralphenylketonurias

Origin of phenylketonuria

From phenylketone + -uria.

Questions about phenylketonuria

What does phenylketonuria mean?
Phenylketonuria means a metabolic disorder in which individuals lack the liver enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) which is needed to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine.
What part of speech is phenylketonuria?
Phenylketonuria is a noun.
How do you pronounce phenylketonuria?
Phenylketonuria is pronounced /fɛnaɪ̯lkiːtəˈnjʊə̯ɹɪ.ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of phenylketonuria?
The plural of phenylketonuria is phenylketonurias.

Words near phenylketonuria in the dictionary

  1. phenylisothiocyanates
  2. phenylium
  3. phenylketone
  4. phenylketones
  5. phenylketoneuria
  6. phenylketonuria
  7. phenylketonurias
  8. phenylketonuric
  9. phenylketonurics
  10. phenyllactate
  11. phenyllactates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phenylketonuria (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-phenylketonuria.ogg.

Cite this entry: “phenylketonuria.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phenylketonuria. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.