thymine
/ˈθaɪmiːn/noun
thymine is spelled T-H-Y-M-I-N-E: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 93,703rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, thymine means “A heterocyclic base, 5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione; it pairs with adenine in DNA” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of thymine is thymines.
How many letters and syllables are in thymine?
| Letters | 7: T-H-Y-M-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 10 million words; the 93,703rd 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 thymine?
Thymine appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 93,703rd 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 thymine?
- /ˈθaɪmiːn/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Tesco250-thymine.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of thymine
- thymines plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does thymine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A heterocyclic base, 5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione; it pairs with adenine in DNA.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Thymine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense organic chemistry, genetics: heterocyclic base, 5-methylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-di:
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 thymine come from?
From thymus + -ine. Thymine was first isolated in 1893 by Albrecht Kossel and Albert Neumann from calves' thymus glands, hence its name.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).