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Glite Dictionary
vanillin

vanillin

1 7.0
A white crystal that gives vanilla its smell and taste used in food and perfume
  • noun
  • /væˈnɪlɪn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : vainillina
  • Many flavored products, such as ice cream and candles, use vanillin as a primary ingredient.

Examples

  • Now, I'm a author of a paper that's just appearing in Science in the next few weeks on the isomerization from vanillin to Acetylene.

  • Powell and Powell (1987) used chemical attractants (vanillin, methyl salicylate, and cineole) to study the response of euglossine bees to forest fragmentation.

    Academic text (1992)

  • So we've used vanillin as a transition state in the conversion of this to that.

  • The sweet scent of vanillin filled the air as the baker prepared vanilla cupcakes.

  • In cosmetics, vanillin is often included for its pleasant fragrance and soothing properties.

Surface Forms

vanillin singular
vanillins plural

Morphology

vanillin = vanilla (transparent) = vanilla + in

Formed from 'vanilla' plus the chemical suffix '-in', so learners who know 'vanilla' can infer it is a substance related to vanilla.

Etymology

The word vanillin comes from vanilla, which comes from Spanish vainilla meaning 'little pod', because the vanilla taste and smell come from the plant's long pods. The ending -in is a common part of many chemical names, so vanillin is the main chemical that gives vanilla its aroma.