Standard Lemma guide

collagen

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: /ˈkɒləd͡ʒɪn/
  • UK: /ˈkɒləd͡ʒən/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈkɑləd͡ʒən/
  • CMU ARPABET: K AA1 L AH0 G AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The main structural protein in the extracellular matrix of the connective tissues of many animals.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, microbiology, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a fibrous scleroprotein in bone and cartilage and tendon and other connective tissue; yields gelatin on boiling

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: scleroprotein, albuminoid

History

Etymology

From French collagène, coined from Ancient Greek κόλλα (kólla, “glue”) and -γενής (-genḗs, “-forming”) (see -gen); it is the main substance that animal glues are derived from.

Across languages

Translations

28 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: كولاجين — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Catalan: col·lagen — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Chinese Mandarin: 膠原蛋白 /胶原蛋白 (jiāoyuán dànbái) — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Czech: kolagen — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Dutch: collageen — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Finnish: kollageeni — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • French: collagène — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Galician: coláxeno — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • German: Kollagen — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Greek: κολλαγόνο (kollagóno) — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Hungarian: kollagén — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Italian: collagene — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Italian: collageno — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Japanese: コラーゲン (korāgen) — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Japanese: 膠原質 (kōgenshitsu) — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Māori: weu pūmua — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Iranian Persian: کُلاژِن (kolâžen) — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Polish: kolagen — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Portuguese: colágeno — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Portuguese: colagénio — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Romanian: colagen — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Russian: коллаге́н (kollagén) — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Slovak: kolagén — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Spanish: colágeno — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Swahili: kolajeni — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Swedish: kollagen — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Thai: คอลลาเจน (kɔn-laa-jên) — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers
  • Turkish: kolajen — glycoprotein that forms elongated fibers