Meaning & use
chlorophyll
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountablebiology
The green substance in plants that takes in light energy so they can make food by photosynthesis.
Grammar: Uncountable: you say 'a lot of chlorophyll', not 'a chlorophyll' or 'chlorophylls'.
Patterns
- contain chlorophyll
- chlorophyll absorbs light
- a molecule of chlorophyll
Leaves look green because they contain chlorophyll.
Chlorophyll absorbs mainly red and blue light.
Without chlorophyll, a plant cannot carry out photosynthesis.
Common combinations
- contain chlorophyll
- All green plants contain chlorophyll.
- chlorophyll absorbs light
- Chlorophyll absorbs light energy from the sun.
- a molecule of chlorophyll
- A molecule of chlorophyll captures light energy.
- chlorophyll content
- The chlorophyll content of the leaves was measured in the lab.
Word family
- chlorophyllous adjective
- Technical term meaning containing or relating to chlorophyll.
Commonly confused: chlorophyll or chloroplast?
chlorophyll vs chloroplast
Chloroplast is the structure inside a plant cell that contains chlorophyll; chlorophyll is the green pigment itself.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence:
Choose one answer.
Chlorophyll is an uncountable noun, so it has no plural form and does not take 'a' or 'many'. The correct sentence uses it without an article.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “chlorophyll”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.