Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

carnitine

/ˈkɑɹ.nəˌtiːn/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: 2.24 in modern English

Syllables: car-ni-tine
IPA: /ˈkɑɹ.nəˌtiːn/

11

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

3

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A betaine, 3-hydroxy-4-trimethylammonio-butanoate, that is found in the liver and has a function in fatty acid transport.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"Although often called an amino acid because of its chemical makeup, L-carnitine is actually a vitaminlike nutrient, related in structure to the B vitamins. L-carnitine is the biologically active form of carnitine."
"2014, Peggy R. Borum, Carnitine homeostasis in humans, Benjamin Toby Wall, Craig Porter (editors), Carnitine Metabolism and Human Nutrition, page 4, Carnitine likely functions in maintaining homeostasis in many metabolic pathways and physiological conditions, with carnitine's role in energy metabolism homeostasis being the best studied."
"Carnitines are quaternary amines synthesized from the amino acids lysine and methionine."

Etymology

From German Carnitin, coined from Latin carn- + Latin -i- + -t- (“arbitrary insertion”) + -in, for it was first described in meat extracts in 1905. By surface analysis, Latin carnit- + -ine.

Origin

Source language: German

Word Breakdown

Root: Carnitin, caro

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈkɑɹ.nəˌtiːn/
British English: /ˈkɑː.nɪt.iːn/

Usage

Inflected Forms

carnitines (plural)

Derived Forms

acetylcarnitine acylcarnitine CAR carnityl deoxycarnitine dextrocarnitine levocarnitine octanoylcarnitine palmitoylcarnitine

Phrases

D-carnitine DL-carnitine L-carnitine

Synonyms

CAR

Questions

How do you pronounce carnitine?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈkɑɹ.nəˌtiːn/.
What does carnitine mean?: A betaine, 3-hydroxy-4-trimethylammonio-butanoate, that is found in the liver and has a function in fatty acid transport.
Where does carnitine come from?: It is traced to German.

How to pronounce carnitine

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “carnitine”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈkɑɹ.nəˌtiːn/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “carnitine”.
Repeat and practice — Say “carnitine” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.