What does "porphyrin" mean?

Any of a class of heterocyclic compounds containing pyrrole rings arranged in a square or other similar shape; they are important in biochemistry in a form with a metal atom in the central cavity (hemoglobin with iron, chlorophyll with magnesium, etc.).

How do you pronounce "porphyrin"?

Pronounced //ˈpɔɹfəɹɪn//.

Porphyrin

//ˈpɔɹfəɹɪn// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any of a class of heterocyclic compounds containing pyrrole rings arranged in a square or other similar shape; they are important in biochemistry in a form with a metal atom in the central cavity (hemoglobin with iron, chlorophyll with magnesium, etc.).
2
any of various pigments distributed widely in living tissues wordnet

Etymology

From German Porphyrin, shortened from Hämatoporphyrin (“haematoporphyrin”).

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