Mutation

How to spell mutation

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mutation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mutation mean?

1. nounA change in form, structure, or genetic material, especially a heritable alteration in an organism's DNA.

Mutation in a sentence

• A single mutation in the gene caused the inherited condition.

• The virus developed a mutation that made the vaccine less effective.

Where does mutation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin mutatio, meaning 'a changing' or 'an alteration', a noun built on the verb mutare, which literally meant 'to move, to change, to exchange'. That same mutare root sits inside a surprising spread of English relatives, including 'mutual', 'commute' (originally to change one thing for another), and 'transmute'. English took mutation in through Old French in the late 1300s, where it first meant any kind of change or alteration. The narrow modern biological sense, a heritable change in an organism's genetic material, was not attached until the early twentieth century, when the Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries used it in his work on inheritance. Because the word is built straight from mut- plus the very common ending -ation, its spelling is regular and rarely trips writers up.

How the word is built

• mut- (from Latin mutare: to change)
• -ation (noun of action/result)