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# dna

«dna» in Mova's school dictionary: **the chemical inside the cells of every living thing that…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (DNA — uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) DNA is the chemical inside the cells of every living thing that carries the instructions for how it grows, works and what it looks like. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#m1)

2) DNA is passed from parents to children, which is why children often look like their parents. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#m2)

3) (figurative) Something's «DNA» is the most basic part of what it is: «kindness is in our school's DNA». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons DNA comes in inheritance and evolution: DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder called a double helix, it is found in the nucleus of a cell, and genes are small sections of it. In everyday life and stories, DNA tests help doctors, help police solve crimes (DNA from a hair or a drop of blood) and help families find relatives. It stands for deoxyribonucleic acid.

### examples

- DNA is like a recipe book inside every cell. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#x1)
- You got half your DNA from your mum and half from your dad. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#x2)
- DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder called a double helix. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#x3)
- The detectives found DNA on the cup. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#x4)
- Identical twins have almost the same DNA. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#x5)
- Scientists can read the DNA of plants and animals. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#x6)
- Rosalind Franklin's pictures helped scientists see the shape of DNA. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#x7)
- Being curious is part of our family's DNA. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/#x8)

### note

Always written in capitals: DNA, said letter by letter, «dee-en-ay». Uncountable: say «DNA», not «a DNA» (but «a DNA test», «a DNA sample» are fine). Genes are parts of DNA; chromosomes are long packed strands of DNA. Myth: DNA does not decide everything — what you eat, learn and do also shapes you.

### In the corpora

- [Mammoths were close relatives of today's elephants, closest of all to the Asian elephant, as scientists found by comparing DNA.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/130-ice-age-real-woolly-mammoths/12/)
- [About 8 percent of human DNA is made of bits of old viruses that got into our ancestors long ago.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/17/)
- [DNA uses only four chemical letters: A, T, C and G.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/6/)
- [Evolution is supported by fossils, by DNA and by changes we can watch happening today.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/280-evolution-myths-put-right-monkeys-the-strongest-and-missing-links/9/)
- [An animal cannot choose to evolve; changes happen by chance in DNA, and the place decides which ones last.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/280-evolution-myths-put-right-monkeys-the-strongest-and-missing-links/11/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «dna» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dna/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.