nitrogen base

or nitrogenous base

noun

1. Chemistry, Biochemistry. a nitrogen-containing organic compound that has the chemical properties of a base, especially a pyrimidine or purine:

   Four nitrogen bases are present in a DNA molecule.

nitrogen base

1. One of the nitrogen-containing purines (adenine or guanine) or pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine, or uracil) found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA. The bases may be attached to a sugar (deoxyribose in DNA, ribose in RNA) to form nucleosides. The addition of a phosphate to a nucleoside results in the formation of a nucleotide, which is the basic constituent of nucleic acids.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nitrogen base¹

First recorded in 1850–55