Phycobilin
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any of a group of bilins (pigments derived from porphyrins) found in some photosynthetic algae; they are open-chain tetrapyrroles related to mammalian bile pigments.
- 2 water-soluble proteinaceous pigments found in red algae and cyanobacteria wordnet
Etymology
From international scientific vocabulary, reflecting New Latin roots/stems referring to plants and bile. By surface analysis, phyco- + bilin = phyco- + bili- + -in, although according to American Heritage Dictionary, bilin was back-formed from phycobilin (as opposed to phycobilin being derived from bilin as surface analysis suggests).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.