enzyme
en·zyme/ˈɛn.zaɪm/noun
enzyme is spelled E-N-Z-Y-M-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (en·zyme). It appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, enzyme means “A biomolecule that catalyses a biological chemical reaction: either a globular protein with this function or an RNA molecule with this function” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of enzyme is enzymes.
How many letters and syllables are in enzyme?
| Letters | 6: E-N-Z-Y-M-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: en·zyme |
| In writing | 6.6 times per million words; the 9,313th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is enzyme?
Enzyme appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th 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 enzyme?
- /ˈɛn.zaɪm/
Enzyme has 2 syllables, split en·zyme in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-enzyme.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of enzyme
- enzymes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does enzyme mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A biomolecule that catalyses a biological chemical reaction: either a globular protein with this function or an RNA molecule with this function.
- 2
The protein type specifically.
- 3
Leavened bread, as opposed to azyme.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Enzyme in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense catalytic protein:
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 enzyme come from?
From German Enzym, coined 1878 by the German physiologist Wilhelm Kühne from Ancient Greek ἐν (en, “in”) + ζύμη (zúmē, “leaven”). By surface analysis, en- + zyme.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).