Codons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sequence of three nucleotides in DNA or RNA that corresponds to a specific amino acid or signifies a stop signal during protein synthesis
2. Triplets of nucleotides that serve as the genetic code, directing the assembly of amino acids into proteins
3. Specific combinations of three organic bases that encode for the building blocks of proteins, facilitating the translation process in cells

Etymology: "Codons" is the plural of "codon", a term coined in 1961 by Francis Crick, Leslie Barnett, Sydney Brenner and Richard Watts-Tobin, who were working out how the genetic code is read in threes. The name combines "code" with the Latin-derived suffix "-on", a form borrowed from the Ancient Greek "kōdōn", meaning a bell or the bell-shaped mouth of a trumpet, which was itself the source of the word for a bell-shaped unit. Because a codon is a triplet of nucleotides, the choice of a suffix from Greek "kōdōn" for an element of a code was a deliberate piece of wordplay on the sound of "code" rather than a reference to any bell-like structure. The plural "codons" simply follows the ordinary English pattern for a countable noun, so the important history lies in the coinage itself.