rotenone

rotenone noun: a toxic crystalline substance obtained from the roots of derris and related plants, widely used as an insecticide.

Noun

rotenone (countable and uncountable, plural rotenones)

A toxic crystalline substance obtained from the roots of derris and related plants, widely used as an insecticide.
- The cryophilic phenotype of the atu mutant was alleviated to some extent by administering rotenone, a pharmacological inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation, but not tolbutamide, a sulphonylurea that stimulates metabolic rate by raising the lymphatic concentration of glucose.2009 March 27, Ken-ichi Takeuchi et al., “Changes in Temperature Preferences and Energy Homeostasis in Dystroglycan Mutants”, in Science, volume 323, number 5922, →DOI, pages 1740–1743
Synonyms:

nicouline

ஒரு வகைப் பூச்சுக் கொல்லி

plural	rotenones

From Japanese ローテン (rōten) + -one (“ketone”), from Hokkien 蘆藤 /芦藤 (lôo-tîn, “Derris elliptica”).

What does rotenone mean?: Rotenone means a toxic crystalline substance obtained from the roots of derris and related plants, widely used as an insecticide.
What is rotenone in Tamil?: Rotenone in Tamil is ஒரு வகைப் பூச்சுக் கொல்லி. See Rotenone meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is rotenone?: Rotenone is a noun.
What is the plural of rotenone?: The plural of rotenone is rotenones.

Adapted from Wiktionary: rotenone (page history and authors); rotenone (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-rotenone.wav.

Cite this entry: “rotenone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rotenone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.