polymer

CEFRC1

/ˈpɒl.ɪ.mə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A chemical made of many repeated smaller units.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A material consisting of such polymer molecules.

Examples

  • Every protein is a polymer composed of units called amino acids.

  • The elasticity of this polymer isn't the best suited to our ends.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meaning

  1. A long or larger molecule consisting of a chain or network of many repeating units, formed by chemically bonding together many identical or similar small molecules called monomers. A polymer is formed by polymerization, the joining of many monomer molecules.

More examples

In context

  • Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Plastic is a synthetic blank formed by repeating small molecular units.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From poly- + -mer, from Ancient Greek πολύς (polús, “many”) + μέρος (méros, “part”). Coined by Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1833, though his definition was quite different from the modern one.