betaine
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.06 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A sweet, crystalline compound (not an alkaloid), trimethylammoniumacetate, found in sugar beet and similar plants, sometimes used to treat muscular degeneracy; the zwitterion (CH₃)₃N⁺CH₂COO⁻
Uncountable
Etymology
Etymology tree Latin bēta Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Italic *-īnos Latin -īnusder. Old French -inbor. Middle English -in English -ine English betaine From New Latin, from Latin bēta (“beet”) + -ine.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Chemistry.