noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A diazine in which the two nitrogen atoms are in the meta- positions; it is the basis of three of the bases found in DNA and RNA: thymine, uracil and cytosine
2. 2
   a heterocyclic organic compound with a penetrating odor wordnet
3. 3
   any of several basic compounds derived from pyrimidine wordnet

Etymology

First attested in 1885. From German Pyrimidin, from German Pyridin (“pyridine”), with the insertion of -mi- from amidine.

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