Racemate
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A mixture which is racemic (“containing equal amounts of dextrorotatory and levorotatory stereoisomers and therefore not optically active”).
"Тhe greatest racemate contents were found in the products prepared in dimethylformamide and dimethylsulphoxide."
- 2 Any salt or ester of racemic acid. archaic
- 3 One participating in the same race as others.
"Differences in time at finish, time minus time of winner, and time minus racemate average for various track conditions are given in Tables 15, 16, and 17, respectively."
- 4 A person of the same racial group as others. rare
"In Figure 1, Negroes and whites alternate around the circle, so that racemates are isolated from one another communicationally. If they communicate, it must be thru a person of the other race."
Example
More examples"Тhe greatest racemate contents were found in the products prepared in dimethylformamide and dimethylsulphoxide."
Etymology
From racem(ic) + -ate.
From racemic acid + -ate (“salt or ester”).
From race (“contest where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective”) + -mate (suffix forming nouns having the sense of ‘those with whom what is denoted by the nouns are shared’).
From race (“group of people distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage or physical characteristics”) + -mate (suffix forming nouns having the sense of ‘those with whom what is denoted by the nouns are shared’).
Related phrases
More for "racemate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.