Word.ws English Dictionary

melittin

UK/mɛˈlɪt.ɪn/US/məˈlɪt.ən/

melittin noun: a peptide, containing 26 amino acids, which is present in bee venom and has been used experimentally as an antibacterial agent, especially against penicillin-resistant bacteria.

Noun

melittin (countable and uncountable, plural melittins)

  1. A peptide, containing 26 amino acids, which is present in bee venom and has been used experimentally as an antibacterial agent, especially against penicillin-resistant bacteria.
    • If enough bees sting an animal, the cardiotoxin component of melittin will work to arrest its heart.2016 August 18, Avi Steinberg, “The Connoisseur of Pain”, in The New York Times Magazine

Forms of melittin

pluralmelittins

Origin of melittin

Borrowed from German Melittin, from Attic Greek μέλιττα (mélitta, “bee”) + -in, from German -in.

Questions about melittin

What does melittin mean?
Melittin means a peptide, containing 26 amino acids, which is present in bee venom and has been used experimentally as an antibacterial agent, especially against penicillin-resistant bacteria.
What part of speech is melittin?
Melittin is a noun.
How do you pronounce melittin?
Melittin is pronounced /mɛˈlɪt.ɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of melittin?
The plural of melittin is melittins.

Words near melittin in the dictionary

  1. melitracen
  2. melitriose
  3. melitrioses
  4. melittid
  5. melittids
  6. melittin
  7. melittins
  8. melittological
  9. melittologist
  10. melittologists
  11. melittology

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: melittin (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.

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