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“Protean” or “Protein”

protean / protein are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

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Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

protean p·r·ow·t·IY·ah·n

  • adjectivetaking on different forms.

protein p·r·OW·t·IY·n

  • nounany of a large group of nitrogenous organic compounds that are essential constituents of living cells; consist of polymers of amino acids; essential in the diet of animals for growth and for repair of tissues; can be obtained from meat and eggs and milk and legumes.
Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“protean”

  • …Lovecraft's stories tend to involve protean semi-gelatinous substances, such as slime,…

“protein”

  • Designing and Benchmarking the MULTICOM Protein Structure Prediction System.
  • This protein is an integral membrane protein…
  • …to be the same PRDM9 protein independently identified later.
  • protein structure and function prediction, 3D…
  • …of DNcon: a Method for Protein Residue-Residue Contact Prediction Using Deep
  • Enhancing HMM-Based Protein Profile-Profile Alignment with Structural Features…
  • His protein structure prediction methods (MULTICOM) supported…
  • Guillain–Barré syndrome, due to elevated protein levels
  • 3DRefine: Consistent Protein Structure Refinement by Optimizing Hydrogen…
  • …residue-specific quality of a single protein model with support vector machines.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

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