dna

«dna» in Mova's school dictionary: the chemical inside the cells of every living thing that… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (DNA — uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) DNA is the chemical inside the cells of every living thing that carries the instructions for how it grows, works and what it looks like. tree →

2) DNA is passed from parents to children, which is why children often look like their parents. tree →

3) (figurative) Something's «DNA» is the most basic part of what it is: «kindness is in our school's DNA». tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons DNA comes in inheritance and evolution: DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder called a double helix, it is found in the nucleus of a cell, and genes are small sections of it. In everyday life and stories, DNA tests help doctors, help police solve crimes (DNA from a hair or a drop of blood) and help families find relatives. It stands for deoxyribonucleic acid.

examples

• DNA is like a recipe book inside every cell. tree →
• You got half your DNA from your mum and half from your dad. tree →
• DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder called a double helix. tree →
• The detectives found DNA on the cup. tree →
• Identical twins have almost the same DNA. tree →
• Scientists can read the DNA of plants and animals. tree →
• Rosalind Franklin's pictures helped scientists see the shape of DNA. tree →
• Being curious is part of our family's DNA. tree →

note

Always written in capitals: DNA, said letter by letter, «dee-en-ay». Uncountable: say «DNA», not «a DNA» (but «a DNA test», «a DNA sample» are fine). Genes are parts of DNA; chromosomes are long packed strands of DNA. Myth: DNA does not decide everything — what you eat, learn and do also shapes you.

In the corpora

• Mammoths were close relatives of today's elephants, closest of all to the Asian elephant, as scientists found by comparing DNA.
• About 8 percent of human DNA is made of bits of old viruses that got into our ancestors long ago.
• DNA uses only four chemical letters: A, T, C and G.
• Evolution is supported by fossils, by DNA and by changes we can watch happening today.
• An animal cannot choose to evolve; changes happen by chance in DNA, and the place decides which ones last.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «dna» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.