BLAST

See also: blast, -blast, and blast-

English

Etymology

An acronym of Basic Local Alignment Search Tool.

Proper noun

BLAST

1. (biology) An algorithm which compares similarities between sequences of nucleotides in nucleic acids or of amino acids in proteins.

Verb

BLAST (third-person singular simple present BLASTs, present participle BLASTing, simple past and past participle BLASTed)

1. (biology, informal, transitive) Alternative letter-case form of blast (to run a sequence through BLAST)
   • 2006, Guy Caldwell, Shelli Williams, Kim Caldwell, Integrated Genomics: A Discovery-Based Laboratory Course, page 85:

     This program is also capable of BLASTing sequencing results and works with most automated sequencing formats, alleviating the need for conversion of PC-based files.

Anagrams

• Balts, blats