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Nuclear membrane/nuclear envelope: the double membrane of the nucleus, encasing the chromosomes and nucleolus.

I know you can put the article "the" before a singular countable noun to create a generic reference, such as the whale is the largest organism in the world. However, it's right to say "the chromosomes" in the vocabulary list entry above. It's correct, but why?

I have searched through numerous websites, but I am still unclear. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

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    Articles ain't prepositions. The two are chalk and cheese apart. Anyway, it's apparently the human set (23 pairs) of chromosomes that's being referred to here thus making it a specific set— which is why the definite article is there.
    – user405662
    Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 5:51
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    The double membrane is not encasing unspecified chromosomes or chromosomes in general. The double membrane is encasing specifically the chromosomes found in the aforementioned nucleus. That's why "the" is required.
    – Benjamin Harman
    Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 6:45

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The rule about using the definite article for a specific noun (whether singular or plural) is not that it has been mentioned before. The rule is:

The definite article (the) is used before a noun to indicate that the identity of the noun is known to the reader. [Butte College Education; emphasis mine]

Very often the identity of the noun is known to the reader because it has been previously mentioned, but it can also be the case that the reader knows the identity of the noun by implication. For example:

  • Yesterday's soccer game ended suddenly when the fans started rioting.

It has not been previously mentioned that there were fans at the soccer game, but it can be assumed that the listener is familiar with public sporting events and the fact that they normally involve spectators – the mention of the game implies the existence of fans.

Sometimes the implication is contained within the logical structure of the sentence itself. For example:

  • I need to keep our dinner in the oven for at least ten more minutes – the potatoes are still too hard.

One can say this without previously mentioning that the dinner has potatoes in it. However, "dinner" has been previously mentioned, so by using the definite article with "the potatoes," it is implied that the previously mentioned dinner contains potatoes.

This is exactly how "the chromosomes" works in your example – either the reader has knowledge of basic biology and already knows that a nucleus contains chromosomes (they way you know a soccer game has fans in attendance) or they are being informed by this definition that a nucleus contains chromosomes (the way the second example informed the reader that the dinner contains potatoes).

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    Probably the best answer to this on ELU.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 13:59
  • I now understand why the use of "the chromosomes" in the vocabulary list entry is correct. But what if I simply wrote, "Nuclear membrane: the double membrane that surrounds the chromosomes and nucleolus." Without mentioning the nucleus, I am not implying that the chromosomes are inside of it.
    – Ted Brown
    Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 17:27
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    But you're still identifying a specific membrane, and the definition is informing you that that membrane surrounds a specific set of chromosomes ("the chromosomes"), so it is still grammatically fine.
    – Canadian Yankee
    Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 17:42
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    The specific set of chromosomes inside the nucleus (contained by the membrane) is what is being referred to. The number of chromosomes inside a nucleus is fixed and they do not change over time. Without the article, it sounds like you're saying that the nucleus contains an arbitrary and variable set of chromosomes that might change over time.
    – Canadian Yankee
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 12:52
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    A don't see why a cell having more than one nucleus would change anything. The article "the" is applied to "chromosomes", so what really matters is whether pointing at a single nucleus (regardless of whether it's the only one in the cell or not), identifies a fixed set of chromosomes. Note that the comments section is not meant for extended discussion. If you're still confused about the direct article, perhaps you should find a different example sentence and ask a new question.
    – Canadian Yankee
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 18:03

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