Standard Lemma guide

gluten

noun · 5 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.

  • /ˈɡluːtən/
  • /ˈɡluːtn̩/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -uːtən
  • CMU ARPABET: G L UW1 T AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Fibrin (formerly considered as one of the "animal humours").

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any gluey, sticky substance.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, rare, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The major protein in cereal grains, especially wheat; responsible for the elasticity in dough and the structure in baked bread.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, cooking, food, lifestyle, microbiology, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A gluey, sticky mass of clay, bitumen etc.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: geography, geology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

a protein substance that remains when starch is removed from cereal grains; gives cohesiveness to dough

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: protein

Narrower terms: corn gluten, wheat gluten

History

Etymology

From Middle French gluten, borrowed from Latin glūten (“glue”).

Across languages

Translations

39 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: غْلُوتِين (ḡlūtīn) — cereal protein
  • Arabic: قلوتن (glūtin) — cereal protein
  • Bulgarian: глутен (gluten) — cereal protein
  • Catalan: gluten — cereal protein
  • Chinese Mandarin: 麵筋 /面筋 (miànjīn) — cereal protein
  • Chinese Mandarin: 麩質 /麸质 (fūzhì) — cereal protein
  • Corsican: glutinu — cereal protein
  • Czech: lepek — cereal protein
  • Dutch: gluten — cereal protein
  • East Frisian Low German: gluuteen — cereal protein
  • Esperanto: gluteno — cereal protein
  • Finnish: gluteeni — cereal protein
  • French: gluten — cereal protein
  • German: Gluten — cereal protein
  • Greek: γλουτένη (glouténi) — cereal protein
  • Hebrew: גְלוּטֵן (gluten) — cereal protein
  • Hungarian: sikér — cereal protein
  • Hungarian: glutén — cereal protein
  • Icelandic: glúten — cereal protein
  • Ido: gluteno — cereal protein
  • Italian: glutine — cereal protein
  • Japanese: グルテン (guruten) — cereal protein
  • Korean: 글루텐 (geulluten) — cereal protein
  • Latvian: lipeklis — cereal protein
  • Latvian: glutēns — cereal protein
  • Macedonian: глуте́н (glutén) — cereal protein
  • Māori: kurutene — cereal protein
  • Norwegian: gluten — cereal protein
  • Polish: gluten — cereal protein
  • Portuguese: glúten — cereal protein
  • Russian: глюте́н (gljutɛ́n) — cereal protein
  • Russian: клейкови́на (klejkovína) — cereal protein
  • Slovene: gluten — cereal protein
  • Spanish: gluten — cereal protein
  • Swahili: gluteni — cereal protein
  • Swedish: gluten — cereal protein
  • Yiddish: גלוטען (gluten) — cereal protein
  • Yiddish: גלוטן (glutn) — cereal protein
  • Yiddish: קליישטאָף (kleyshtof) — cereal protein