adenine
/ˈæ.dəˌniːn/noun
adenine is spelled A-D-E-N-I-N-E: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 63,645th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, adenine means “A base, C₅H₅N₅, found in certain glands and tissues, which pairs with thymine in DNA and uracil in RNA” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of adenine is adenines.
How many letters and syllables are in adenine?
| Letters | 7: A-D-E-N-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 63,645th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is adenine?
Adenine appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 63,645th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce adenine?
- /ˈæ.dəˌniːn/
- /ˈæ.dɪˌnɪn/
Adenine has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-adenine.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Tesco250-adenine.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of adenine
- adenines plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does adenine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A base, C₅H₅N₅, found in certain glands and tissues, which pairs with thymine in DNA and uracil in RNA.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Adenine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense base that pairs with thymine or uracil:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does adenine come from?
From German Adenin, from Ancient Greek ἀδήν (adḗn, “gland”). By surface analysis, aden- + -ine. It was named in 1885 by the German biochemist Albrecht Kossel, in reference to the pancreas (a specific gland) from which Kossel's sample had been extracted.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).