noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A pattern, in a nucleotide or amino-acid sequence, that appears less often than chance would predict and is conjectured to have biological significance.
2. 2
   A pattern that acts as a reversal or counterpoint to a dominant motif.

Etymology

From anti- + motif.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.