BharatNotes Chlorophyll
noun (uncountable/countable)Usage in a UPSC answer
Satellite monitoring of chlorophyll-a concentrations in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal enables India's National Centre for Coastal Research to track algal bloom events that threaten fishery productivity along the 7,500-km coastline.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
chlorophyllous (adjective), chlorophyllose (adjective), chloroplast (noun), chlorosis (noun — deficiency condition)
Root
Greek khlōros = green, pale green + phyllon = leaf
Etymology
The word was coined in 1818 by French chemists Joseph Bienaimé Caventou and Pierre Joseph Pelletier, who isolated the pigment from leaves and named it from Greek khlōros (pale green, yellow-green) and phyllon (leaf). Greek khlōros also gives 'chlorine' (named for its yellowish-green colour) and 'chloride'. The English form follows the French chlorophylle directly.
Memory Hook
Chlorophyll = khlōros (green) + phyllon (leaf) — quite literally 'green of the leaf'. Remember: chlor- appears in 'chlorine' (which is greenish), so anything chloro- is green, and phyllon means leaf, giving you the green pigment that makes leaves green.
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
The green pigment in plants that absorbs light energy for photosynthesis. The point worth carrying beyond the definition is why plants appear green: chlorophyll absorbs strongly in the blue and red parts of the spectrum and reflects green, so the colour we see is the light the plant does not use. Photosynthesis is also the base of nearly every food chain, which is the link to ecology.
Don’t Confuse It With
Chlorophyll is the light-absorbing green pigment. Chloroplast is the organelle containing it. Photosynthesis is the process it enables. Carotenoids are accessory pigments absorbing other wavelengths, and their colours appear when chlorophyll breaks down in autumn.
Hindi Meaning
पर्णहरित (parnaharit) or क्लोरोफिल.
Common Questions
- What is chlorophyll?
- The green pigment in plants that absorbs light energy and makes photosynthesis possible.
- Why do plants look green?
- Chlorophyll absorbs light most strongly in the blue and red parts of the spectrum and reflects green, so the green we see is the light the plant does not absorb.
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