Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to an optically active substance that rotates the plane of polarized light to the left, or counterclockwise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as levogyrate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Chem. & Physics) Turning or rotating the plane of polarization of light towards the left; -- applied to crystals and compounds exhibiting optical activity, such as levulose, left-handed quartz crystals, etc. Opposite of dextrorotatory.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective chemistry That rotates the plane of polarized light to the left, or anticlockwise.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective rotating to the left

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

levo- +‎ rotatory

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Examples

  • “At the molecular level, it would appear to be a levorotatory form of the Gnawing bacillus,” Selar began.

    CATALYST OF SORROWS Margaret Wander Bonanno 2004

  • “At the molecular level, it would appear to be a levorotatory form of the Gnawing bacillus,” Selar began.

    CATALYST OF SORROWS Margaret Wander Bonanno 2004

  • Oil from the wild roots of North India is said to be highly levorotatory (rotates the plane of polarized light to the left), whereas that from the cultivated roots from South India is dextrorotatory (rotates polarized light to the right).

    4 Questions and Answers 1993

  • Shock waves blew most of the atmosphere off, leavin 'the rest thin enough that chemical evolution could go on, not too unlike the Terran-photosynthesis and so forth, though the amino acids that developed happened to be mainly dextro -' stead of levorotatory.

    The Rebel Worlds Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1972

  • The '265 patent discusses the unusual stereoselectivity of the biological properties as between the dextrorotatory and the levorotatory enantiomers.

    Patent Baristas 2009

  • The '265 patent discusses the unusual stereoselectivity of the biological properties as between the dextrorotatory and the levorotatory enantiomers.

    Patent Baristas 2009

  • Believing that there was no advantage to separation of the enantiomers of thienopyridines, and no other racemates were separated until November 1985 when Sanofi then determined the biological properties of the enantiomers of PCR 4099, and found that they had the rare characteristic of "absolute stereoselectivity": the dextrorotatory enantiomer provided all of the favorable antiplatelet activity but with no significant neurotoxicity, while the levorotatory enantiomer produced no antiplatelet activity but virtually all of the neurotoxicity.

    Patent Baristas 2009

  • Believing that there was no advantage to separation of the enantiomers of thienopyridines, and no other racemates were separated until November 1985 when Sanofi then determined the biological properties of the enantiomers of PCR 4099, and found that they had the rare characteristic of "absolute stereoselectivity": the dextrorotatory enantiomer provided all of the favorable antiplatelet activity but with no significant neurotoxicity, while the levorotatory enantiomer produced no antiplatelet activity but virtually all of the neurotoxicity.

    Patent Baristas 2009

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