Telomere
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Either of the sequences of DNA at each end of a eukaryotic chromosome.
"2004, Peter M. Lansdorp, 11: Telomeres and Telomere Regulation, Robert Paul Lanza (editor), Handbook of Stem Cells, Volume 2: Adult and Fetal Stem Cells, page 127, Chromosome ends or telomeres are composed of guanine-rich repeat sequences and associated proteins. A minimum number of repeats is essential for proper telomere function and to avoid sustained activation of DNA damage pathways that may result in replicative senescence or cell death."
- 2 either (free) end of a eukaryotic chromosome wordnet
Example
More examples"2004, Peter M. Lansdorp, 11: Telomeres and Telomere Regulation, Robert Paul Lanza (editor), Handbook of Stem Cells, Volume 2: Adult and Fetal Stem Cells, page 127, Chromosome ends or telomeres are composed of guanine-rich repeat sequences and associated proteins. A minimum number of repeats is essential for proper telomere function and to avoid sustained activation of DNA damage pathways that may result in replicative senescence or cell death."
Etymology
From telo- (“end”) + -mere (“part”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.