albumen

See also: albúmen

English

Etymology

From Latin albūmen (“white of an egg”), from albus (“white”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂élbʰos (“white”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈælbjʊmən/, /ælˈbjuːmən/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈalbjʊmɪn/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːmən
• Hyphenation: al‧bu‧men

Noun

albumen (countable and uncountable, plural albumens or albumina)

2. The white part of an egg; being mostly the protein albumin and water.

   Synonyms: egg white, glair

   Coordinate term: yolk

   • 1892, Ella Eaton Kellogg, “Foods”, in Science in the Kitchen: A Scientific Treatise on Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes‎^[1], Revised edition, Michigan: Health Publishing Company, page 25:

     The various elements found in food are the following: Starch, sugar, fats, albumen, mineral substances, indigestible substances.

3. (archaic) The endosperm of flowering plants.

Derived terms

• albumenise
• albumenization
• albumenize
• albumenoid
• vegetable albumen

Related terms

• albumin

Translations

white part of an egg

• Arabic: غِرْقِل m (ḡirqil), آح البَيْض m (ʔāḥ al-bayḍ), زُلَال m (zulāl), بياض m (bayāḍ)

  Moroccan Arabic: بياض البيض (byāḍ el-bayḍ, byāḍ el-bīḍ)

• Armenian: սպիտակուց (hy) (spitakucʻ)
• Belarusian: бяло́к m (bjalók)
• Bengali: সফেদী (śophedi)
• Bulgarian: белтък (bg) m (beltǎk), бялото на яйцето, бяло (bg) n (bjalo)
• Catalan: albumen (ca) m, clara (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 蛋白 (daan^6-2 baak⁶)

  Hakka: 卵白 (lón-pha̍k)

  Hokkien: 卵清 (nn̄g-chheng), 白仁 (pe̍h-jîn, pe̍h-lîn), 卵白 (zh-min-nan) (nn̄g-pe̍h)

  Mandarin: 蛋白 (zh) (dànbái), 蛋清 (zh) (dànqīng), 卵白 (zh) (luǎnbái)

• Czech: bílek (cs) m
• Danish: hvide c, æggehvide (da) c
• Dutch: eiwit (nl) n
• Esperanto: albumeno
• Faroese: hvíti m, eggjahvíti m
• Finnish: valkuainen (fi), munanvalkuainen (fi)
• French: glaire (fr), blanc d’œuf (fr) m, blanc (fr), albumen (fr)
• Galician: clara f, albume m
• German: Eiweiß (de) n, Albumen (de)
• Greek: λεύκωμα (el) n (léfkoma), ασπράδι (el) n (asprádi)

  Ancient Greek: λευκόν n (leukón)

• Hebrew: חֶלְבּוֹן (he) m (khelbón)
• Hungarian: tojásfehérje (hu), fehérje (hu)
• Icelandic: eggjahvíta (is) f, hvíta í eggi f
• Ido: albumeno (io)
• Indonesian: putih telur (id)
• Ingrian: valkulain, munanvalkulain
• Irish: gealacán m, gealacán uibhe m, albaimín m
• Italian: albume (it) m, chiara (it) f, bianco d'uovo m
• Japanese: 卵白 (ja) (らんぱく, ranpaku), 白身 (ja) (しろみ, shiromi), 蛋白 (ja) (たんぱく, tanpaku)
• Korean: 흰자위 (huinjawi), 난백(卵白) (nanbaek), 단백(蛋白) (ko) (danbaek)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: سپێناو (spênav)

  Northern Kurdish: spîk (ku) f, spîçk (ku) f

• Latin: albūmen, albāmentum
• Lithuanian: baltymas m
• Macedonian: белка f (belka)
• Malagasy: tapotsiny (mg)
• Malay: albumen, putih telur (ms)
• Maltese: l-abjad tal-bajd
• Manchu: ᡧᠣᡥᠣ (šoho)
• Māori: whakakahu
• Mongolian: уураг (mn) (uurag)
• Norman: blianc d'oeu m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: eggehvite m, eggekvite m, hvite m, kvite m

  Nynorsk: eggekvite f, kvite m

• Pannonian Rusyn: бильчок m (bilʹčok)
• Pashto: سپين (ps) m pl (spin)
• Persian: سفیده (fa) (sefide)
• Plautdietsch: Eiawitt n, Wits m
• Polish: białko (pl) n
• Portuguese: clara (pt) f, albúmen m
• Romanian: albuș (ro) n
• Romansh: (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) alv d'ov f, (Puter) alv d'öv f, (Vallader) alb d'öv f, (Sursilvan) clar d'iev f, (Sutsilvan, Surmiran) cler d'ov f, (Puter, Vallader) cler d'öv f
• Russian: бело́к (ru) m (belók)
• Scottish Gaelic: gealagan m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: беланце n, бјеланце n, белањак m, бјелањак m, беланац m, бјеланац m

  Latin: belance (sh) n, bjelance (sh) n, belanjak (sh) m, bjelanjak (sh) m, belanac m, bjelanac m

• Slovak: bielok m
• Slovene: beljak (sl) m
• Spanish: albumen (es) m, clara (es) f
• Sundanese: bobodas endog, bobodas
• Swedish: äggvita (sv) c, vita (sv) c
• Tagalog: puti ng itlog
• Thai: ไข่ขาว (th) (khaì khaǎo)
• Turkish: ak (tr), beyaz (tr), yumurta akı (tr)
• Ukrainian: біло́к (uk) m (bilók), яє́чний біло́к m (jajéčnyj bilók)
• Venetan: ciàra f
• Vietnamese: lòng trắng
• Welsh: gwynnwy m
• Yiddish: ווײַסל n (vaysl)

Further reading

• “albumen”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Indonesian

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin albūmen (“white of an egg”), albus (“white”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂élbʰos (“white”).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /alˈbumɛn/ [alˈbu.mɛn]
• Rhymes: -umɛn
• Syllabification: al‧bu‧men

Noun

albumen (plural albumen-albumen)

1. albumen, egg white, glair

   Synonym: putih telur

Further reading

• “albumen”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Latin

Etymology

From albus (“white”) +‎ -men (noun-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [aɫˈbuː.mɛn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [alˈbuː.men]

Noun

albūmen n (genitive albūminis); third declension

1. albumen; the white of an egg

   Synonyms: albāmentum, albor, album

   Coordinate terms: vitellus, vitellum

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	albūmen	albūmina
genitive	albūminis	albūminum
dative	albūminī	albūminibus
accusative	albūmen	albūmina
ablative	albūmine	albūminibus
vocative	albūmen	albūmina

Related terms

• albāmentum
• albārium
• albārius
• albātus
• albēdō
• albeō
• albēscō
• albicēris
• albicō
• albidus
• albitūdō
• albor
• albūgō
• albulus
• album
• alburnum
• albus

Descendants

• Old Catalan: album
• Old French: albun, aubun
  • Middle French: aubun, aubin
  • Walloon: åbin
• → English: albumen
• → Old French: albume
• → French: albumen m, ⇒ albumine f
  • → English: albumin
  • → Russian: альбуми́н m (alʹbumín)
  • → Spanish: albúmina f
• →? Italian: albume m (possibly inherited)
• → Romanian: albumen n
• → Spanish: albumen m
  • → Tagalog: albumen

References

• “albumen”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “albumen”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French albumen.

Noun

albumen n (uncountable)

1. albumen

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	albumen	albumenul
genitive-dative	albumen	albumenului
vocative	albumenule

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin albūmen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /alˈbumen/ [alˈβ̞u.mẽn]
• Rhymes: -umen
• Syllabification: al‧bu‧men

Noun

albumen m (plural albúmenes)

1. egg white, albumen

   Synonym: clara

Related terms

• albúmina

Further reading

• “albumen”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swedish

Noun

albumen

1. definite plural of album

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish albumen, from Latin albūmen. Doublet of albumina.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔalˈbumen/ [ʔɐlˈbuː.mɛn̪]
• Rhymes: -umen
• Syllabification: al‧bu‧men

Noun

albumen (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜎ᜔ᜊᜓᜋᜒᜈ᜔)

1. albumen (white part of an egg)

   Synonyms: puti ng itlog, klara, klaro ng itlog, kaputian ng itlog

2. (biology) albumen (endosperm)

   Synonym: endospermo

Related terms

• alba
• albino
• album
• albumina

See also

• yema

Further reading

• “albumen”, in KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2025
• “albumen”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018
• Cuadrado Muñiz, Adolfo (1972), Hispanismos en el tagalo: diccionario de vocablos de origen español vigentes en esta lengua filipina, Madrid: Oficina de Educación Iberoamericana, page 21