Estrogen

How to spell estrogen

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce estrogen

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does estrogen mean?

1. nounA group of hormones that regulate the development and maintenance of female reproductive features.

Estrogen in a sentence

• The clinic measured her estrogen levels before adjusting the treatment.

• Declining estrogen during menopause can cause a range of physical changes.

Where does estrogen come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is a scientific coinage from the early twentieth century, assembled from Greek parts. The first element traces back to the Greek oistros, which literally meant 'gadfly' or 'sting' and by extension came to mean a frenzy or a mad sexual desire; in biology it gave the term 'estrus' (the fertile, receptive period in female animals). The second element, -gen, comes from the Greek root meaning 'to produce' or 'to give rise to', the same piece that appears in 'oxygen' and 'hydrogen'. So estrogen is, quite literally, the substance that 'produces estrus'. Researchers isolated and named the hormone in the 1920s and 1930s, and the American spelling drops the initial 'oe' digraph that British writers keep in 'oestrogen', which is the main thing to watch when spelling it.

How the word is built

• estro- (from Greek oistros: frenzy, sexual desire; via estrus, the fertile period)
• -gen (Greek -genes: producing, giving rise to)

British and American spelling

Estrogen is the American spelling. British English spells it oestrogen.