Molecular

How to spell molecular

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce molecular

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does molecular mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or consisting of molecules, the smallest units of a chemical compound.

Molecular in a sentence

• The lab measured the molecular weight of each sample.

• Researchers studied the molecular structure of the new drug.

Where does molecular come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin molecula, a diminutive of moles, which meant a 'mass', 'bulk', or 'heap', so molecula literally described a 'little mass'. The diminutive was popularised in scientific Latin and French during the eighteenth century, when natural philosophers needed a term for the tiny particles that make up matter. The adjective came into English from the French moléculaire in the early nineteenth century, as chemistry began to formalise the idea of molecules as the smallest units of a compound. The same Latin moles also survives in the English words 'mole' (the chemistry unit) and even 'molest', which originally meant to burden someone, as if with a great mass. For spelling, it helps to remember the buried diminutive: the base is molecul-, with a single l in the middle and the everyday -ar ending, not -er.

How the word is built

• molecul- (from Latin molecula: a small mass)
• -ar (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')