Standard Lemma guide

melanin

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: /ˈmɛlənɪn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • New-Jersey: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /ˈmelənɪn/
  • New-Zealand: /ˈmelənən/
  • CMU ARPABET: M EH1 L AH0 N AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: M EH1 L AH0 N IH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of a group of naturally occurring dark pigments, especially the pigment found in skin, hair, fur, and feathers.

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

insoluble pigments that account for the color of e.g. skin and scales and feathers

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: animal pigment

History

Etymology

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek stem of μέλας (mélas, “black”) + -in; by surface analysis, melan(o)- + -in.

Across languages

Translations

26 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: melanina — dark pigment
  • Chinese Mandarin: 黑色素 (hēisèsù) — dark pigment
  • Chinese Mandarin: 黑素 (hēisù) — dark pigment
  • Czech: melanin — dark pigment
  • Dutch: melanine — dark pigment
  • Esperanto: melanino — dark pigment
  • Finnish: melaniini — dark pigment
  • French: mélanine — dark pigment
  • German: Melanin — dark pigment
  • Greek: μελανίνη (melaníni) — dark pigment
  • Hungarian: melanin — dark pigment
  • Ido: melanino — dark pigment
  • Irish: meilinin — dark pigment
  • Italian: melanina — dark pigment
  • Japanese: メラニン (meranin) — dark pigment
  • Korean: 멜라닌 (mellanin) — dark pigment
  • Malay: melanin — dark pigment
  • Māori: manauri — dark pigment
  • Polish: melanina — dark pigment
  • Portuguese: melanina — dark pigment
  • Romanian: melanină — dark pigment
  • Russian: мелани́н (melanín) — dark pigment
  • Spanish: melanina — dark pigment
  • Swedish: melanin — dark pigment
  • Vietnamese: sắc tố đen — dark pigment
  • Welsh: melanin — dark pigment