mercaptopurine
/mɚˌkæp.təˈpjʊɹˌin/noun
mercaptopurine is a noun meaning “An thiol antimetabolite C₅H₄N₄S that interferes especially with the metabolism of purine bases and the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and that is…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-E-R-C-A-P-T-O-P-U-R-I-N-E and has 5 syllables, and it appears about once in every 49 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of mercaptopurine is mercaptopurines.
What does mercaptopurine mean?
noun
- 1
An thiol antimetabolite C₅H₄N₄S that interferes especially with the metabolism of purine bases and the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and that is sometimes used in the treatment of acute leukemia.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce mercaptopurine?
- UK /mɜːˌkap.tə(ʊ)ˈp(j)ʊə.ɹiːn/
- UK /mɜːˌkap.tə(ʊ)ˈpjɔː.ɹiːn/
- US /mɚˌkæp.təˈpjʊɹˌin/
Mercaptopurine has 5 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of mercaptopurine
- mercaptopurines plural
- 6-mercaptopurine
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is mercaptopurine?
Mercaptopurine appears about once in every 49 million words in written English, the 217,360th 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).
Where does mercaptopurine come from?
From mercapto- + purine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).