tetracyclic, a.
(tɛtrəˈsaɪklɪk, -ˈsɪklɪk)
[f. tetra- + cyclic a.]
1. Having four cycles or circles; spec. in Bot., having four whorls of floral organs.
| 1878 Macnab Botany ix. (1883) 161 Dicotyledones... Flowers typically tetracyclic pentamerous. |
2. Chem. Of a compound: containing four fused hydrocarbon rings in the molecule.
| 1928 Chem. Abstr. XXII. 2748 (heading) Synthesis of tetracyclic compounds and of pyrene. 1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. of Plants xiii. 414 Plants that are only lightly predated contained three or four isomers of lupanine and closely related tetracyclic compounds. |