Achiral

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A term describing a material that is symmetrical in a way that it can be superimposed on its mirror image and has no handedness
2. Referring to an object or molecule that can be overlaid with its mirror image, indicating a lack of chirality and asymmetry
3. A descriptor for a structure or substance that maintains symmetry allowing it to match its mirror image without any distinction of orientation or handiness

Etymology: Achiral describes an object that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image, the opposite of chiral. A glass of water, a sphere, or a plain flat shape is achiral, because each one matches its reflection exactly. The word is built from two parts. The first is the Greek prefix "a-", meaning "not" or "without", and the second is "chiral", which itself comes from the Ancient Greek "kheír", meaning "hand". A chiral object is one like a left and right hand: mirror images that cannot be lined up on top of each other. So "achiral" literally means "not handed." The prefix "a-" entered English as a living negating element, and English speakers have attached it to many words, but here it is added to a term that was coined only in modern chemistry and physics, to name the mirror-symmetry property that "chiral" describes. The result is a word whose core meaning rests entirely on the human hand.

Antonyms: chiral