Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tough, protective, semitransparent substance, primarily a nitrogen-containing polysaccharide, forming the principal component of arthropod exoskeletons and the cell walls of certain fungi.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The name given by Odier to the organic substance which forms the elytra and integuments of insects and the carapaces of Crustacea, and which may be obtained by exhausting the wing-cases of May-beetles or June-bugs with water, alcohol, ether, acetic acid, and boiling alkalis. The residue retains the form of the wing-cases. It is solid, transparent, and of horny aspect. Its composition is regarded as being C15H26N2O10. Also called
entomolin .
Wiktionary
- n. biochemistry A complex polysaccharide, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and in the cell walls of fungi; thought to be responsible for some forms of asthma in humans.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Chem.) A white amorphous horny substance forming the harder part of the outer integument of insects, crustacea, and various other invertebrates; entomolin.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tough semitransparent horny substance; the principal component of the exoskeletons of arthropods and the cell walls of certain fungi
Etymologies
- From French chitine, from Latin chitōn ("mollusk"). See also chiton. (Wiktionary)
- French chitine : New Latin chitōn, mollusk (from Greek khitōn, chiton; see chiton) + -ine2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Her chitin was the color of raw amethyst, the glow of her great golden compound eyes was significantly dimmed, and her antennae hung forward in limp arcs.”
“Their chitin was a rich maroon color, black under - neath and marked by thick black vertical stripes across the vestigial wing cases.”
“If the gene, called chitin synthase, could be completely silenced, the mosquitoes may die without the use of pesticides because the chitin biosynthesis pathway would be blocked, Zhu said.”
“The bags are treated with an antimicrobial product made with chitin, which is derived from crab shells and helps fight mold, mildew, fungus and harmful bacteria such as E. coli.”
“By modifying a sugar found in shells, called chitin, and injecting it into the spinal cords of the guinea pigs it was found that the sugar targeted the damaged cells and plugged the holes.”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
“They break down chitin, which is the second most abundant carbohydrate in nature after cellulose.”
“The cell walls of fungal cells contain a carbohydrate called chitin not found in plant cell walls.”
“The beetle's back and the crab's shell owe their toughness to a common compound called chitin that n ...”
“Other microbial adjuvants, such as chitin, alternatively activate macrophages to drive T H2 immunity [7].”
“The best word is "chitin," when "dykes" or something like that would have done fine - but the drunk, effusive Bosnian narrator seizes on that word and reuses it throughout the piece, adopting the ostentatious indicators of this American's genius.”
The L Magazine - New York City's Local Event and Arts & Culture Guide
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chitin’.
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science fact or fiction
pretty open-ended here—terms, ideas, lingo, technologies and phenomena (real or postulated) that are, were, should be or could be used in speculative fiction
tachyon, mecha, dropship, wetware, meatspace, nanobot, cloned meat, asteroid mining, hyperdrive, wormhole, parallel universe, distributed intel... and 464 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Palaeos Eukarya
Words that appear in the Palaeos Eukarya glossary.
acronema, actin, alpha chitin, alveoli, amino acid, antapical, antenna pigment, apical, apical complex, autogamy, axoneme, axopod and 134 more...
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Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, C
cryptoxanthin, convent, calcar, chuckle, campanile, covet, complexion, campestral, chirography, counterscarp, caliginous, catabolism and 722 more...
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Red Seas Under Red Skies
Words and phrase from Scott Lynch's book, Red Seas Under Red Skies.
legate, pugnacity, weevil, steady as a dry-d..., chit, sans, apprise, forfend, ken, expatriate, enclave, scrubs and 220 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3250 more...
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Storm Thief
Words and phrases from Chris Wooding's book, Storm Thief.
chit, lean-to, panopticon, hobnail, periscope, shanty, flout, racket, lathe, dynamo, kiln, gurn and 44 more...
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words of strong character
thaumaturge, tenebrous, zeitgeist, incunabula, opine, pylon, latent, nexus, ectopic, maelstrom, pyre, acerbic and 68 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for chitin.
jamieb Crack! oops, sorry little guy Dec 12, 2007