carrageenin

8.6

A soft, jellylike extract from red seaweed used to thicken food and medicine

noun
/kəˈræɡɪnɪn/

Specialized

: carragenina

Food labels often list carrageenin among the ingredients in dairy alternatives.

Examples

Some ice creams use carrageenin as a thickening agent instead of gelatin.
The laboratory conducted an experiment to observe the effects of carrageenin on muscle tissue.
The carrageenin thickens the sauce.
Many dairy products contain carrageenin for texture.
Food labels often list carrageenin among the ingredients in dairy alternatives.
Some ice creams use carrageenin as a thickening agent instead of gelatin.
Many dairy products contain carrageenin for texture.

Synonyms

carrageenan

vscarrageenin

Specialized

1 8.6

A powder from red seaweed that makes food thicker and helps it stay mixed

is the same substance but written with an alternate spelling

How Thick

carrageenin

Specialized

8.6

xanthan

Specialized

2 5.6

agar

Specialized

3 6.8

gelatin

Specialized

10 3.2

starch

9 3.7

Surface Forms

carrageenin singular

carrageenins plural

Morphology

carrageenin = carrageen (semi-transparent) = carrageen + in

The formation is the regular chemical suffix '-in' added to 'carrageen', but both the base and the suffix are specialised and may be unfamiliar to average learners.

Etymology

Carrageenin comes from the Irish word carraigín, which means 'little rock' because the red seaweed that makes it often grows on rocks and was called 'rock moss'. That seaweed gives a jelly-like extract used to thicken and stabilize foods and medicines, so carrageenin now means the thickening substance made from this seaweed.