Definitions

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

  • noun Any of a class of enzymes that catalyze the linkage of two large molecules.

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

  • noun (Biochem.) An enzyme which catalyzes creation of a covalent bond between two substrates, resulting in a larger product which is a combination of the two starting materials; especially, DNA ligase, an enzyme which creates a phosphate bond between 5′ and 3′ ends of a DNA chain, resulting in a longer chain of DNA. DNA ligase is important in normal biosynthesis of DNA in the replication cycle of cells.

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

  • noun biochemistry Any of a group of enzymes that catalyze the binding of two molecules; synthetase.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin ligāre, to bind; see leig- in Indo-European roots + –ase.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin lig(are) ("to bind") +‎ -ase.

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Examples

Comments

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  • a catalysis in linking DNA

    October 23, 2010

  • I think you mean a catalyst.

    October 24, 2010

  • I used the more archaic noun form to see if it would catalyze any action. Voilà!

    October 24, 2010

  • Has anyone made a list of common catalysts? Anyone? Anyone?

    *would not be surprised either way*

    *begins plotting out cat o' list pun (or equivalent)*

    October 24, 2010