uncoat

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verb

(of the capsid shell) to dissociate from the viral core in the host cell cytoplasm

“It takes only minutes, after entry into a cell, for a virus particle to uncoat.”

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Meanings

verbuncoat (third-person singular simple present uncoats, present participle uncoating, simple past and past participle uncoated)

present singular third person uncoats · participle present uncoating · participle past uncoated · past uncoated

  1. intransitivebiology(of the capsid shell) to dissociate from the viral core in the host cell cytoplasm

    It takes only minutes, after entry into a cell, for a virus particle to uncoat.

  2. transitivebiologyTo remove the viral capsid of a virus, leading to the release of the viral genomic nucleic acid.

Origin

From un- + coat.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

toucanTucanoCanuto
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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