biobank

B3I1O1B3A1N1K5

noun

Any of several types of repository of biological material (e.g. seeds) or information (e.g. DNA).

OriginEnglish bank ← Middle French banque ← Italian banca →
RareScrabble 15
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Meanings

nounbiobank (plural biobanks)

plural biobanks

  1. biologyAny of several types of repository of biological material (e.g. seeds) or information (e.g. DNA).
    1 more example

    2016, Alysson Bessani et al, "BiobankCloud: A Platform for the Secure Storage, Sharing, and Processing of Large Biomedical Data Sets" (abstract), Biomedical Data Management and Graph Online Querying. Biobanks store and catalog human biological material that is increasingly being digitized using next-generation sequencing (NGS).

verbbiobank (third-person singular simple present biobanks, present participle biobanking, simple past and past participle biobanked)

present singular third person biobanks · participle present biobanking · participle past biobanked · past biobanked

  1. transitivebiologyTo store (biological material) in a biobank.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
  2. Ancient Greekβῐ́ος (bĭ́os)
  3. Ancient Greekβῐο- (bĭo-)
  4. Englishbio-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeg-
  6. Proto-Germanic*bankiz
  7. Proto-West Germanic*banki
  8. Lombardicbank
  9. Italianbanca
  10. Middle Frenchbanque
  11. Englishbank
  12. Englishbiobank

From bio- + bank.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan biobanc
  • biobancany of several types of repository of material
Finnish biopankki
  • biopankkiany of several types of repository of material
Greek βιοτράπεζα
  • βιοτράπεζα (viotrápeza)any of several types of repository of material
Indonesian biobank
  • biobankany of several types of repository of material
Irish bithbhanc
  • bithbhancany of several types of repository of material
Cite this entry
APA

biobank. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/biobank

MLA

“biobank.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/biobank. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “biobank,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/biobank.

Source: biobank on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.