phycobilin
phycobilin noun: any of a group of bilins (pigments derived from porphyrins) found in some photosynthetic algae; they are open-chain tetrapyrroles related to mammalian bile pigments.
Noun
phycobilin (plural phycobilins)
- Any of a group of bilins (pigments derived from porphyrins) found in some photosynthetic algae; they are open-chain tetrapyrroles related to mammalian bile pigments.
Forms of phycobilin
| plural | phycobilins |
|---|
Origin of phycobilin
From international scientific vocabulary, reflecting New Latin roots/stems referring to plants and bile. By surface analysis, phyco- + bilin = phyco- + bili- + -in, although according to American Heritage Dictionary, bilin was back-formed from phycobilin (as opposed to phycobilin being derived from bilin as surface analysis suggests).
Questions about phycobilin
- What does phycobilin mean?
- Phycobilin means any of a group of bilins (pigments derived from porphyrins) found in some photosynthetic algae; they are open-chain tetrapyrroles related to mammalian bile pigments.
- What part of speech is phycobilin?
- Phycobilin is a noun.
- What is the plural of phycobilin?
- The plural of phycobilin is phycobilins.
Words near phycobilin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: phycobilin (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:
Cite this entry: “phycobilin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phycobilin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.