mutation

UK/mjuˈteɪʃən/US/mjuˈteɪʃən/

nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,380 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: mutations

A mutation is a random change in the genetic recipe, sometimes useful, sometimes not. A rare mutation, mutation rate, the virus mutated.

Most do nothing at all, a few are harmful and a very few are useful — and evolution works because that very few are passed on. Films made the word frightening; biology finds it ordinary. Every person carries dozens their parents did not have.

Definitions of mutation

1nounmutationA random change in genetic material.B2+
“A single mutation in one gene can cause the disease.”

mutation is a change.

Where it comes from

Latin mutatio comes from mutare, to change. Mutual, commute and moult come from the same changing.

Proto-Indo-European
*mey- (change)
Old French
mutacion
Latin
mūtātiō
Middle English
mutacioun
English, today
mutation

Late 14th century as Middle English mutacioun, from Latin mūtātiō, both directly and via Old French mutacion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space

Practise this word

mutation in the wild

Some disorders are caused by a mutation on the X chromosome and have X-linked inheritance.
Genetic disorder
Most cancers, although they involve genetic mutations to a small proportion of cells in the body, are acquired diseases.
Genetic disorder
In contrast to a DNA damage, a mutation is an alteration of the base sequence of the DNA.
Mutation
Ordinarily, a mutation cannot be recognized by enzymes once the base change is present in both DNA strands, and thus a mutation is not ordinarily repaired.
Mutation
A nonsense mutation also differs from a nonstop mutation, which is a point mutation that removes a stop codon.
Nonsense mutation

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary