Histone

//ˈhɪstəʊn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various simple water-soluble proteins that are rich in the basic amino acids lysine and arginine and are complexed with DNA in the nucleosomes of eukaryotic chromatin.
  2. 2
    a simple protein containing mainly basic amino acids; present in cell nuclei in association with nucleic acids wordnet

Etymology

Borrowed from German Histon, perhaps from Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi, “make stand”) or ἱστός (histós, “loom”).

Related phrases

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