Word.ws English Dictionary

erythrosine

erythrosine noun: tetraiodo-fluorescein, a cherry-pink fluorone used as a food colouring, in printing inks, and as a biological stain, a dental plaque disclosing agent and a radiopaque medium.

Noun

erythrosine (countable and uncountable, plural erythrosines)

  1. tetraiodo-fluorescein, a cherry-pink fluorone used as a food colouring, in printing inks, and as a biological stain, a dental plaque disclosing agent and a radiopaque medium.
    • The sprinkles had the red food coloring E127, or erythrosine. E127 is only permitted for use in cocktail cherries and candied cherries in the UK and the EU, according to a statement from West Yorkshire Trading Standards sent to CNN Thursday.2021 October 14, Jack Guy, “UK bakery banned from using sprinkles which are legal in the US”, in CNN
    • In 1990, the FDA banned Red No. 3, also known as erythrosine, from cosmetics and topical drugs under the Delaney Clause, because the chemical was shown to be carcinogenic at high doses in tests on lab rats.2024 December 7, Kaitlin Sullivan, “FDA may finally ban artificial red dye from beverages, candy and other foods”, in NBC News
    Synonyms:
    E127 when used as a food colouring

Synonyms of erythrosine

  • E127 when used as a food colouring

Forms of erythrosine

pluralerythrosines

Origin of erythrosine

From Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós, “red”) + -ine, equivalent to erythro- + -s- + -ine.

Questions about erythrosine

What does erythrosine mean?
Erythrosine means tetraiodo-fluorescein, a cherry-pink fluorone used as a food colouring, in printing inks, and as a biological stain, a dental plaque disclosing agent and a radiopaque medium.
What part of speech is erythrosine?
Erythrosine is a noun.
What is the plural of erythrosine?
The plural of erythrosine is erythrosines.

Words near erythrosine in the dictionary

  1. erythroscopes
  2. erythrose
  3. erythroses
  4. erythrosiderite
  5. erythrosin
  6. erythrosine
  7. erythrosines
  8. erythrosins
  9. erythrosuchid
  10. erythrosuchids
  11. erythrothioneine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: erythrosine (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)-Flame, not lame-erythrosine.wav.

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