carnitine
/ˈkɑː.nɪt.iːn/US/ˈkɑɹ.nəˌtiːn/
carnitine noun: a betaine, 3-hydroxy-4-trimethylammonio-butanoate, that is found in the liver and has a function in fatty acid transport.
Noun
carnitine (countable and uncountable, plural carnitines)
- A betaine, 3-hydroxy-4-trimethylammonio-butanoate, that is found in the liver and has a function in fatty acid transport.
- Although often called an amino acid because of its chemical makeup, L-carnitine is actually a vitaminlike nutrient, related in structure to the B vitamins. L-carnitine is the biologically active form of carnitine.2007, Shari Lieberman, Nancy Pauling Bruning, The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book, 4th edition, unnumbered page
- Carnitine likely functions in maintaining homeostasis in many metabolic pathways and physiological conditions, with carnitine's role in energy metabolism homeostasis being the best studied.2014, Peggy R. Borum, Carnitine homeostasis in humans, Benjamin Toby Wall, Craig Porter (editors), Carnitine Metabolism and Human Nutrition, page 4
- Synonyms:
- CAR
Synonyms of carnitine
Forms of carnitine
| plural | carnitines |
|---|
Origin of carnitine
From German Carnitin, coined from Latin carn- + Latin -i- + -t- (“arbitrary insertion”) + -in, for it was first described in meat extracts in 1905. By surface analysis, Latin carnit- + -ine.
Words formed from carnitine
- acetylcarnitine
- acylcarnitine
- CAR
- carnityl
- D-carnitine
- deoxycarnitine
- dextrocarnitine
- DL-carnitine
- L-carnitine
- levocarnitine
- octanoylcarnitine
- palmitoylcarnitine
Questions about carnitine
- What does carnitine mean?
- Carnitine means a betaine, 3-hydroxy-4-trimethylammonio-butanoate, that is found in the liver and has a function in fatty acid transport.
- What part of speech is carnitine?
- Carnitine is a noun.
- How do you pronounce carnitine?
- Carnitine is pronounced /ˈkɑː.nɪt.iːn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of carnitine?
- The plural of carnitine is carnitines.
Words near carnitine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: carnitine (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-carnitine.wav.
Cite this entry: “carnitine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carnitine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.