casein

English

Alternative forms

• caseine (obsolete)

Etymology

From French caséine, formed from Latin cāseus (“cheese”) + -ine.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪ.siːn/, /ˈkeɪ.siː.ɪn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪ.sin/, /keɪˈsin/, /ˈkeɪ.si.ɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪsiːn, -iːn

Noun

casein (countable and uncountable, plural caseins)

1. (biochemistry) A protein present in both milk and in the seeds of leguminous plants.
   • 1913 May 25, “COLLOIDAL COPPER'S VALUE IN CANCER CASES CONFIRMED; […]”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 November 2025:

     Since writing this report, we found that the intravenous injection of nucleoprotein, casein, and probably also other albuminous substances may produce small necroses of liver tissue in the guinea pig. This observation points to a possible danger in the use of casein solutions."

   • 2004, Harold McGee, chapter 1, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Scribner, →ISBN:

     It’s the clumping nature of the caseins that makes possible most thickened milk products, from yogurt to cheese. The whey proteins play a more minor role; they influence the texture of casein curds, and stabilize the milk foams on specialty coffees.

Synonyms

• legumine (archaic)

Derived terms

• azocasein
• caseinase
• caseinate
• caseinogen
• caseinolysis
• caseinolytic
• gluten casein
• noncasein
• paracasein
• vegetable casein

Related terms

• casamino
• casamino acid
• casease
• caseate
• caseation
• casefy
• caseic
• caseification
• caseophile
• caseose
• caseous
• caseum
• noncaseating

Translations

protein

• Bulgarian: казеи́н m (kazeín)
• Catalan: caseïna f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 酪蛋白 (zh) (làodànbái)

• Czech: kasein m
• Danish: kasein n
• Esperanto: kazeino
• Finnish: kaseiini (fi)
• French: caséine (fr) f
• Galician: caseína (gl) f
• German: Kasein (de) n
• Ido: kazeino (io)
• Indonesian: kasein (id)
• Italian: caseina (it) f
• Japanese: 乾酪素 (ja) (かんらくそ, kanrakuso)
• Macedonian: казеи́н m (kazeín)
• Māori: pūmua kuruwhatu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kasein n

  Nynorsk: kasein n

• Persian: کازئین (kâze'-in)
• Polish: kazeina (pl) f
• Portuguese: caseína f
• Spanish: caseína (es) f
• Swedish: kasein (sv) n

Anagrams

• Caines, Našice, aescin, cesian, in case, incase