Meanings
nounsupercoil (plural supercoils)
plural supercoils
- biologyA coil of the DNA helix upon itself, such as a figure eight.
verbsupercoil (third-person singular simple present supercoils, present participle supercoiling, simple past and past participle supercoiled)
present singular third person supercoils · participle present supercoiling · participle past supercoiled · past supercoiled
- biologyTo twist circular DNA into a supercoil.
After deproteination, the migration of the assembled form II DNA will remain unchanged, appearing not to have been supercoiled by nucleosomes.
1995, Sara J. Felts, “Assembly and Transcription of Chromatin Templates Using RNA Polymerase III”, in Martin J. Tymms, editor, In Vitro Transcription and Translation Protocols, →ISBN, page 58
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*úp
- Proto-Indo-European*upér
- Proto-Italic*super
- Latinsuper
- Latinsuper-
- Englishsuper-
- Englishcoil
- Englishsupercoil
Cite this entry
APA
supercoil. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/supercoil
MLA
“supercoil.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/supercoil. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “supercoil,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/supercoil.
Source: supercoil on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.