Standard Lemma guide

keratin

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.

  • Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɛɹətɪn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian, New-Zealand: /ˈkeɹətən/
  • CMU ARPABET: K EH1 R AH0 T AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: K EH1 R AH0 T IH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The protein of which hair and nails are composed.

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 that occurs in the outer layer of the skin and in horny tissues such as hair, feathers, nails, and hooves

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: ceratin

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: scleroprotein, albuminoid

History

Etymology

Borrowed from German Keratin, from Ancient Greek κέρας (kéras, “horn”) + -in. Doublet of carat.

Across languages

Translations

42 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: كيراتين — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Bulgarian: кератин (keratin) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Catalan: queratina — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Chinese Cantonese: 角質 /角质 (gok3 zat1) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Chinese Mandarin: 角質 /角质 (jiǎozhì) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Chinese Mandarin: 角蛋白 (jiǎodànbái) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Chinese Mandarin: 角朊 (jiǎoruǎn) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Czech: keratin — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Czech: rohovina — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Danish: keratin — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Dutch: keratine — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Esperanto: kerato — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Finnish: keratiini — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • French: kératine — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Galician: queratina — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • German: Keratin — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • German: Hornstoff — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • German: Hornsubstanz — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Icelandic: hyrni — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Icelandic: hornefni — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Icelandic: keratín — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Ido: keratino — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Irish: ceiritin — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Italian: cheratina — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Japanese: ケラチン (kerachin) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Khmer: កេរ៉ាទីន (keeraatiin) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Māori: keratini — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Norwegian Bokmål: keratin — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: keratin — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Occitan: queratina — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Persian: کراتین (kerâtin) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Polish: keratyna — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Portuguese: queratina — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Romanian: cheratină — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Russian: керати́н (keratín) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Russian: рогово́е вещество́ (rogovóje veščestvó) — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Spanish: queratina — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Swahili: keratini — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Swedish: keratin — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Swedish: hornämne — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Turkish: keratin — protein that hair and nails are made of
  • Welsh: ceratin — protein that hair and nails are made of