hemoglobin

/ˌhiməˈgloʊbən/

/himəʊˈglʌʊbɪn/

Other forms: hemoglobins

Hemoglobin is a hemoprotein in blood that helps transport oxygen, and it gives blood its red color.

Hemoglobin is the short version of the medical word haemato-globulin, which means something like "blood grains" in Greek. Like many medical terms also derived from the Greek, this one was first used in the 19th century. A doctor doing blood tests might be measuring the levels of hemoglobin in your bloodstream.

Definitions of hemoglobin

1. noun

   a hemoprotein composed of globin and heme that gives red blood cells their characteristic color; function primarily to transport oxygen from the lungs to the body tissues
   “fish have simpler hemoglobin than mammals”

   synonyms: Hb, haemoglobin

   types:

   oxyhaemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin

   the bright red hemoglobin that is a combination of hemoglobin and oxygen from the lungs

   type of:

   haemoprotein, hemoprotein

   a conjugated protein linked to a compound of iron and porphyrin