tryptophan
/ˈtɹɪptə(ʊ)fæn/noun
tryptophan is spelled T-R-Y-P-T-O-P-H-A-N. The wrong spelling people search most is trytophan: about 70 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 65 of all searches for the word. Tryptophan is a noun meaning “An essential amino acid with an indole side chain; present in many foods, especially chocolate, oats, banana…”. The plural of tryptophan is tryptophans.
How many letters and syllables are in tryptophan?
| Letters | 10: T-R-Y-P-T-O-P-H-A-N |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 47,633rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, trytophan, about 70 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell tryptophan?
Tryptophan is spelled T-R-Y-P-T-O-P-H-A-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 65 of the searches for tryptophan in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is tryptophan?
Tryptophan appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 47,633rd 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 tryptophan?
- UK /ˈtɹɪptə(ʊ)fæn/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Tesco250-tryptophan.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of tryptophan
- tryptophans plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tryptophan mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An essential amino acid with an indole side chain; present in many foods, especially chocolate, oats, banana and milk; it is essential for normal growth and development and is the precursor of serotonin and niacin; any specific form of this compound, or any derivative of it.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate tryptophan?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of tryptophan: tryp.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tryptophan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense essential amino acid:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tryptophane |
| German | Tryptophan |
| Portuguese | triptofano |
| Spanish | triptófano |
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 tryptophan come from?
From German Tryptophan, from Ancient Greek φαίνω (phaínō, “to appear”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).