Definitions

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

  • noun The inactive or nearly inactive precursor of an enzyme, converted into an active enzyme by proteolysis.

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

  • noun (Bioch.) Any one of a class of proteins that are converted, in the normal course of cellular metabolism, into one or more active enzymes; also called zymogen. The conversion usually is due to a specific cleavage of a peptide bond by another enzyme, or may be due to acid.

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

  • noun biochemistry Any inactive precursor of an enzyme that is converted to an enzyme by proteolysis; a zymogen

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

  • noun any of a group of compounds that are inactive precursors of enzymes and require some change (such as the hydrolysis of a fragment that masks an active enzyme) to become active

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