melanin

See also: Mélanîn

English

Etymology

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek stem of μέλας (mélas, “black”) +‎ -in; by surface analysis, melan(o)- +‎ -in.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛlənɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (New Jersey):

    (file)

• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈmelənɪn/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈmelənən/

Noun

melanin (countable and uncountable, plural melanins)

1. (biochemistry) Any of a group of naturally occurring dark pigments, especially the pigment found in skin, hair, fur, and feathers.
   • 2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Generally, cephalopod ink includes melanin, enzymes related to melanin production, catecholamines, peptidoglycans, free amino acids and metals (Derby 2014) .

Derived terms

• allomelanin
• amelanosis
• biomelanin
• dopamelanin
• eumelanin
• melanated
• melanin-challenged
• melaninization
• melaninlike
• melaninogenesis
• melanistic
• melanize
• melatonin
• neuromelanin
• pheomelanin
• phytomelanin
• prepromelanin
• promelanin
• pyomelanin
• zoomelanin

Related terms

• melano- (and its derivatives)

Translations

dark pigment

• Catalan: melanina f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 黑色素 (zh) (hēisèsù), 黑素 (zh) (hēisù)

• Czech: melanin (cs) m
• Dutch: melanine (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: melanino
• Finnish: melaniini (fi)
• French: mélanine (fr) f
• German: Melanin (de) n
• Greek: μελανίνη (el) f (melaníni)
• Hungarian: melanin (hu)
• Ido: melanino (io)
• Irish: meilinin f
• Italian: melanina (it) f
• Japanese: メラニン (ja) (meranin)
• Korean: 멜라닌 (mellanin)
• Malay: melanin
• Māori: manauri
• Polish: melanina (pl) f
• Portuguese: melanina (pt) f
• Romanian: melanină (ro) f
• Russian: мелани́н (ru) m (melanín)
• Spanish: melanina (es) f
• Swedish: melanin (sv) n
• Vietnamese: sắc tố đen
• Welsh: melanin m

See also

• melatonin

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “melanin”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Lemnian, lineman

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛlanɪn]
• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛlaniːn]

Noun

melanin m inan

1. melanin

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• “melanin”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “melanin”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Swedish

Noun

melanin n

1. (biochemistry) melanin

Declension

Declension of melanin

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	melanin	melanins
	definite	melaninet	melaninets
plural	indefinite	—	—
	definite	—	—

See also

• färgämne

References

• “melanin”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “melanin”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)