What does "zwitterion" mean?

A molecule, such as an amino acid, that carries both a positive and a negative charge.

What is a synonym for "zwitterion"?

Common synonyms include: dipolar ion, inner salt, inner salt.

Pronounced //ˈtsvɪtəɹ.aɪən//.

//ˈtsvɪtəɹ.aɪən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A molecule, such as an amino acid, that carries both a positive and a negative charge.

Unadapted borrowing from German Zwitterion, from Zwitter (“hermaphrodite”) + Ion (“ion”).

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