Biochemical

How to spell biochemical

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce biochemical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does biochemical mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the chemical processes and substances that occur within living organisms.
2. nounA chemical compound that is produced by or found in living organisms.

Biochemical in a sentence

• adjective

  The lab measured the biochemical changes in the patient's blood after exercise.

• noun

  The factory was fined for releasing a harmful biochemical into the river.

• adjective

  Stress can trigger a biochemical reaction that raises the heart rate.

• noun

  Insulin is a biochemical that the body needs to regulate blood sugar.

Where does biochemical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word is a modern scientific compound built from two parts. The first element, bio-, comes from the Greek bios, meaning 'life' or 'course of life', the same root that gives us biology and biography. The second element comes from chemical, which traces back through alchemy to the Arabic al-kimiya and ultimately to older words for the art of transforming substances. The two were joined in the late nineteenth century, around the 1850s to 1880s, as scientists began studying the chemistry of living organisms, the field that came to be called biochemistry. The word therefore literally describes anything relating to the chemical processes of life. A useful spelling note is that there is no letter between bio and chemical: the 'o' of bio sits directly against the 'c' of chemical, with no hyphen and no extra vowel.

How the word is built

• bio- (Greek: life)
• chem (from chemistry)
• -ical (adjective suffix)