Standard Lemma guide

colchicine

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɒl.tʃɪs.iːn/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɒl.kɪs.iːn/
  • General-American: /ˈkɑl.t͡ʃəˌsiːn/
  • General-American: /ˈkɑl.kəˌsiːn/
  • CMU ARPABET: K AO1 L CH AH0 S IY0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A highly toxic alkaloid, chemical formula C22H25NO6, originally extracted from plants of the genus Colchicum and formerly used to treat rheumatic complaints, now used mainly in the treatment of gout.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: chemistry, medicine, natural-sciences, organic-chemistry, pharmacology, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an analgesic drug derived from the saffron plant and used to treat gout

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: analgesic, anodyne, painkiller, pain pill

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English colchicum Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Italic *-īnos Latin -īnusder. Old French -inbor. Middle English -in English -ine English colchicine From colchicum + -ine.

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 秋水仙素 (qiūshuǐxiānsù) — alkaloid
  • Chinese Mandarin: 秋水仙鹼 /秋水仙碱 (qiūshuǐxiānjiǎn) — alkaloid
  • Czech: kolchicin — alkaloid
  • Dutch: colchicine — alkaloid
  • Finnish: kolkisiini — alkaloid
  • French: colchicine — alkaloid
  • German: Colchicin — alkaloid
  • Greek: κολχικίνη (kolchikíni) — alkaloid
  • Italian: colchicina — alkaloid
  • Japanese: コルヒチン (koruhichin) — alkaloid
  • Kazakh: колхицин (kolxisin) — alkaloid
  • Korean: 콜히친 (kolhichin) — alkaloid
  • Kyrgyz: колхицин (kolhitsin) — alkaloid
  • Polish: kolchicyna — alkaloid
  • Russian: колхици́н (kolxicín) — alkaloid
  • Turkish: kolşisin — alkaloid
  • Walloon: coltchicene — alkaloid