All these six different codons will create the same exact amino acid, namely leucine. And these different codons that encode for the same exact amino acid are known as synonyms. Now, what's the big deal about this idea that the genetic code is degenerative? Well, what it means is the reason the code is degenerative is because that actually minimizes the number of mutations that arise in our cells. So what do we mean by that? Well, let's suppose we have the following case.