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phosphatase

noun

Simple meaning

Any of several enzymes that hydrolyze phosphate esters, and are important in the metabolism of carbohydrates, nucleotides and phospholipids, and in the formation of bone.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fahsfaytays

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfɑsfeɪteɪs

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.

noun

  1. biochemistry

    Any of several enzymes that hydrolyze phosphate esters, and are important in the metabolism of carbohydrates, nucleotides and phospholipids, and in the formation of bone.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: (biochemistry) Any of several enzymes that hydrolyze phosphate esters, and are important in the metabolism of carbohydrates, nucleotides and phospholipids, and in the formation of bone.

Used this way, phosphatase 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.

alkaline phosphataseacid phosphataseprotein phosphatasephosphatase activitytyrosine phosphatasephosphatase levelphosphatase testphosphatase reaction

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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.