enzyme

[en-zahym] /ˈɛn zaɪm/

noun, Biochemistry

any of various proteins, as pepsin, originating from living cells and capable of producing certain chemical changes in organic substances by catalytic action, as in digestion.

Compare -ase.

Origin

1880-85; < Medieval Greek énzymos leavened (Greek en- en-² + zȳ́m(ē) leaven + -os adj. suffix)

Examples from the web for enzyme

Most farmers feed their pigs this enzyme as a supplement.
Researchers have identified an enzyme that could hold the key to reducing obesity.
They are the product of gene splicing, turning out enzymes in quantities .
Researchers identify an enzyme crucial to healthy blood vessels, .
Usually the enzyme and its substrate have complementary structures.
Without this enzyme, the lipid builds up, causing the disease's symptoms.
He had to modify the worm enzyme, making it into one that would function in mammals.
All you can do is look at the mutation that made the enzyme.
Babies always made lactase, the enzyme that breaks down this sugar, but after weaning lactase production would stop.
Sufferers lack an enzyme needed to break down fatty substances in the brain and nerve cells.

British Dictionary definitions for enzyme

enzyme

/ˈɛnzaɪm/

noun

any of a group of complex proteins or conjugated proteins that are produced by living cells and act as catalysts in specific biochemical reactions

Derived Forms

enzymatic (ˌɛnzaɪˈmætɪk; -zɪ-), enzymic (ɛnˈzaɪmɪk; -ˈzɪm-) adjective

Word Origin

C19: from Medieval Greek enzumos leavened, from Greek en-² + zumē leaven

Word Origin and History for enzyme

1881, as a biochemical term, from German Enzym, coined 1878 by German physiologist Wilhelm Kühne (1837-1900), from Modern Greek enzymos "leavened," from en "in" (see en- (2)) + zyme "leaven" (see zymurgy).

enzyme in Medicine

enzyme en·zyme (ěn'zīm)
n.
Any of numerous proteins or conjugated proteins produced by living organisms and functioning as specialized catalysts for biochemical reactions.

en'zy·mat'ic (-zə-māt'ĭk) adj.

enzyme in Science

enzyme

(ěn'zīm)

Any of numerous proteins produced in living cells that accelerate or catalyze the metabolic processes of an organism. Enzymes are usually very selective in the molecules that they act upon, called substrates, often reacting with only a single substrate. The substrate binds to the enzyme at a location called the active site just before the reaction catalyzed by the enzyme takes place. Enzymes can speed up chemical reactions by up to a millionfold, but only function within a narrow temperature and pH range, outside of which they can lose their structure and become denatured. Enzymes are involved in such processes as the breaking down of the large protein, starch, and fat molecules in food into smaller molecules during digestion, the joining together of nucleotides into strands of DNA, and the addition of a phosphate group to ADP to form ATP. The names of enzymes usually end in the suffix -ase.

enzyme in Culture

enzyme [(en-zeyem)]

A protein molecule that helps other organic molecules enter into chemical reactions with one another but is itself unaffected by these reactions. In other words, enzymes act as catalysts for organic biochemical reactions.