anticodon

A sequence of three nucleotides on transfer RNA that is complementary to a sequence (the *codon ) on messenger RNA, to which it temporarily binds during protein synthesis. A given molecule of transfer RNA will possess a specific anticodon that only complexes with one particular amino acid. It is this absolute correspondence between an amino acid, an anticodon, and a codon, that enables  the type and sequence of amino acids in a protein to be determined precisely.