neurotransmitter
noun
Simple meaning
Any substance, such as acetylcholine or dopamine, responsible for sending nerve signals across a synapse between two neurons.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nuurahtransmiterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
nʊˈɹɑtɹænsˈmɪtɚ
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
biochemistryneuroscience
Any substance, such as acetylcholine or dopamine, responsible for sending nerve signals across a synapse between two neurons.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Any substance, such as acetylcholine or dopamine, responsible for sending nerve signals across a synapse between two neurons.
Used this way, neurotransmitter is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- 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
- 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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A monoamine that is functionally important in neural transmission.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.