Example Sentences
Rebecca Coffey, Forbes, 9 Dec. 2021
The amino acids and sugars that make up our bodies are chiral.
—Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 14 Dec. 2016
However, the dirt reacting with chiral selectivity would change the picture dramatically.
—David Warmflash, Discover Magazine, 20 July 2016
Think of chiral molecules as being like a pair of gloves.
—Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 14 Dec. 2016
For example, chiral molecular materials—molecules that exist as a pair of non-superimposable mirror images—will revolutionize quantum technologies.
—Jessica Wade, WIRED, 27 Dec. 2022
The classic example is chiral perturbation theory, which replaces the quarks and gluons of quantum chromodynamics with the pions and nucleons of the low-energy world.
—Sean Carroll, Discover Magazine, 19 Apr. 2011
And every molecule involved churns out chiral products.
—Byrobert F. Service, science.org, 27 Oct. 2022
At a cutoff of 1 GeV, for example, chiral effective field theory stops working, because protons and neutrons stop behaving like single particles and instead act like trios of quarks.
—Quanta Magazine, 1 Mar. 2022
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'chiral.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
chir- + -al entry 1
1894, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing chiral
Dictionary Entries Near chiral
Cite this Entry
“Chiral.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chiral. Accessed 2 Jun. 2023.
Copy Citation
Medical Definition
chiral
adjective
Stephen C. Stinson, Chemical & Engineering News
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