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molecular

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Combined with itself and with no other element.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

muhlehkyuhler

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

məˈlɛkjəlɚ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. chemistry

    Relating to or produced by or consisting of molecules

  2. chemistryof an element

    Combined with itself and with no other element; elemental.

  3. Relating to simple or elementary organization

    “Proceed by more and more detailed analysis to the molecular facts of perception"--G.A. Miller.”

noun

  1. chemistry

    Any compound having a specified (range of) molecular weight(s)

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Relating to or produced by or consisting of molecules

Used this way, molecular is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Science
  • Academic writing
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

molecular levelmolecular basismolecular sizemolecular motionmolecular species

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • molecular biologistnounCompound term

    A biologist who studies the structure and activity of macromolecules essential to life.

  • molecular biologynounCompound term

    The branch of biology that studies the structure and activity of macromolecules essential to life (and especially with their genetic role).

  • molecular formulanounCompound term

    A chemical formula based on analysis and molecular weight.

  • molecular geneticsnounCompound term

    The branch of genetics concerned with the structure and activity of genetic material at the molecular level.

  • molecular weightnounCompound term

    The sum of the relative atomic masses of the constituent atoms of a molecule.

  • relative molecular massnounCompound term

    The sum of the relative atomic masses of the constituent atoms of a molecule.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.