Standard Lemma guide

nicotine

noun · 3 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.

  • /ˈnɪkətiːn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: N IH1 K AH0 T IY2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An alkaloid (C10H14N2), commonly occurring in the tobacco plant.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

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

Examples

  • She is addicted to nicotine.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Tobacco or cigarettes.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively, uncountable

Examples

  • He's got nicotine stains on his fingers.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

an alkaloid poison that occurs in tobacco; used in medicine and as an insecticide

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: vasoconstrictor, vasoconstrictive, pressor, alkaloid, plant toxin, phytotoxin

History

Etymology

Etymology tree French Nicot Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Italic *-īnos Latin -īnus French -in Proto-Indo-European *-h2 Proto-Indo-European *-eh2 Proto-Italic *-ā Latin -am Old French -e French -e French -ine French nicotinebor. English nicotine Borrowed from French nicotine, equivalent to Nicot + -ine, named after Jean Nicot (1530–1604), the French ambassador to Portugal, who sent tobacco seeds back to France in 1561. The etymology of the surname itself is unclear.

Across languages

Translations

79 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: nikotinë — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Arabic: نِيكُوتِين (nikutīn) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Armenian: նիկոտին (nikotin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Azerbaijani: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Belarusian: нікаці́н (nikacín) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Belarusian: нікаты́н (nikatýn) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Bengali: নিকোটিন (nikōṭin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Bulgarian: никоти́н (nikotín) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Burmese: နီကိုတင်း (nikuitang:) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Catalan: nicotina — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Cherokee: ᏂᎪᏘᏂ (nigotini) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Chinese Cantonese: 尼古丁 (nei4 gu2 ding1) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Chinese Cantonese: 煙鹼 /烟碱 (jin1 gaan2) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Chinese Mandarin: 尼古丁 (nígǔdīng) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Chinese Mandarin: 煙鹼 /烟碱 (yānjiǎn) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Czech: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Danish: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Dutch: nicotine — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Esperanto: nikotino — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Estonian: nikotiin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Finnish: nikotiini — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • French: nicotine — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Friulian: nicotine — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Galician: nicotina — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Georgian: ნიკოტინი (niḳoṭini) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • German: Nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Greek: νικοτίνη (nikotíni) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Hebrew: נִיקוֹטִין (nikotín) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Hindi: निकोटीन (nikoṭīn) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Hindi: ताम्रकूटी (tāmrakūṭī) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Hungarian: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Icelandic: nikótín — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Ido: nikotino — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Indonesian: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Irish: nicitín — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Italian: nicotina — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Japanese: ニコチン (nikochin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Kazakh: никотин (nikotin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Khmer: និកូត៍រស (nikourŭəh) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Khmer: នីកូទីន (niikoutiin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Korean: 니코틴 (nikotin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Kyrgyz: никотин (nikotin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Latin: nicotinum — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Latvian: nikotīns — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Lithuanian: nikotinas — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Macedonian: никоти́н (nikotín) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Malay: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Māori: nikotini — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Mongolian: никотин (nikotin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Occitan: nicotina — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Iranian Persian: نیکوتین (nikotin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Piedmontese: nicotin-a — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Polish: nikotyna — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Portuguese: nicotina — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Romanian: nicotină — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Russian: никоти́н (nikotín) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Serbo-Croatian: нико̀тӣн — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Serbo-Croatian: nikòtīn — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Slovak: nikotín — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Slovene: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Spanish: nicotina — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Swahili: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Swedish: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Tagalog: nikotina — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Tajik: никотин (nikotin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Thai: นิโคติน (ní-koo-dtin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Turkish: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Turkmen: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Ukrainian: нікоти́н (nikotýn) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Urdu: نِکوٹِین (nikoṭīn) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Uyghur: نىكوتىن (nikotin) — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Uzbek: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Vietnamese: nicotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Vietnamese: nhựa thuốc — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Vietnamese: nicôtin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Volapük: nikotin — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
  • Welsh: nicotîn — addictive alkaloid derived from tobacco
Real reading context

nicotine in complete knowledge articles