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mutagen (n.)

"agent that causes mutation," 1946, from mutation + -gen "thing that produces." Related: Mutagenic; mutagenesis; mutagenize.

Entries related to mutagen

mutation (n.)

late 14c., mutacioun, "action or process of changing," from Old French mutacion (13c.), and directly from Latin mutationem (nominative mutatio) "a changing, alteration, a turn for the worse," noun of action from past-participle stem of mutare "to change" (from PIE root *mei- (1) "to change, go, move"). The genetics sense "process whereby heritable changes in DNA arise" is from 1894. The linguist's i-mutation is attested from 1874; earlier was i-umlaut (1869), from German, for which mutation was Sweet's English substitute.

-gen 
word-forming element technically meaning "something produced," but mainly, in modern use, "thing that produces or causes," from French -gène (18c.), from Greek -genes "born of, produced by," which is from the same source as genos "birth," genea "race, family," from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget," with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups. First used in late 18th century French chemistry (see oxygen), it probably involves a misunderstanding of -genes, as though it meant "that which produces."

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Definitions of mutagen from WordNet

mutagen (n.)
any agent (physical or environmental) that can induce a genetic mutation or can increase the rate of mutation;
From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near mutagen

muster

mustn't

musty

mutability

mutable

mutagen

mutant

mutate

mutation

mutatis mutandis

mute

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