Mutated

How to spell mutated

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mutated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mutated mean?

1. verbChanged in form or genetic structure, especially through a sudden alteration in a cell or organism.
2. adjectiveHaving undergone a change, especially a genetic one that produces an altered form.

Mutated in a sentence

• verb

  The virus mutated several times during the long pandemic.

• adjective

  The mutated gene was responsible for the rare condition.

• verb

  Researchers noted that the bacteria mutated once exposed to the antibiotic.

• adjective

  Scientists isolated a mutated strain that resisted treatment.

Where does mutated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb mutare, which literally meant 'to change' or 'to move from one state to another'. Its past participle was mutatus, and the same root gives English a family of relatives including 'mutual', 'commute', and 'transmute', all carrying the underlying idea of exchange or change. The noun 'mutation' arrived in English first, by way of Old French in the late Middle Ages, and the verb 'mutate' was effectively back-formed from it, coming into common use in the nineteenth century. The modern biological sense, a sudden heritable change in a gene, was popularised by geneticists in the early twentieth century. For spelling, it helps to remember the single t in the mut- root: the doubling temptation never applies, since the word is just mut plus the familiar -ate and -ed endings.

How the word is built

• mut- (from Latin mutare: to change)
• -ate (verb suffix)
• -ed (past tense/participle)