tragacanth

tragacanth noun: a polysaccharide gum, extracted from several species of leguminous plants of the genus Astragalus, formerly used medicinally and now as a food additive. Also more fully gum tragacanth.

Noun

tragacanth (countable and uncountable, plural tragacanths)

A polysaccharide gum, extracted from several species of leguminous plants of the genus Astragalus, formerly used medicinally and now as a food additive. Also more fully gum tragacanth.
- Where what I have to note is too much to be included within the narrow limits of a margin, I commit it to a slip of paper, and deposit it between the leaves; taking care to secure it by an imperceptible portion of gum tragacanth paste.1844, E.A.Poe, Marginalia
- There would have been many gums and resins in these markets for our lute-maker to bind his wood with: […] gum tragacanth from Aleppo, which would be sold as thin and wrinkled worm-like pieces of shrub.2002, Victoria Finlay, Colour, Sceptre, published 2003, page 198
Synonyms:

E413 when used as a thickener, stabiliser and emulsifier

tragacanth meaning in Bengali, Arabic, Malay and Persian

tragacanth in Bengali

এক প্রকার পলিস্যাকারাইড আঠা, গাম

tragacanth in Arabic

milkvetch gum: كَثِيرَاء kaṯīrāʔ, نَكَأَة f ~ نَكَعَة nakaʔa

tragacanth in Malay

milkvetch gum: katira, getah anggur

tragacanth in Persian

milkvetch gum: گز gaz, کتیرا katirâ

Synonyms of tragacanth

E413 when used as a thickener
stabiliser and emulsifier

Forms of tragacanth

plural	tragacanths

Origin of tragacanth

From Latin tragacantha, from Koine Greek τραγάκανθα (tragákantha, “tragacanth”), from Ancient Greek τράγος (trágos, “goat”) + ἄκανθα (ákantha, “thorn”). Doublet of adragant.

Words formed from tragacanth

tragacanthin

Questions about tragacanth

What does tragacanth mean?: Tragacanth means a polysaccharide gum, extracted from several species of leguminous plants of the genus Astragalus, formerly used medicinally and now as a food additive. Also more fully gum tragacanth.
What is tragacanth in Bengali?: Tragacanth in Bengali is এক প্রকার পলিস্যাকারাইড আঠা, গাম. See Tragacanth meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is tragacanth?: Tragacanth is a noun.
What is the plural of tragacanth?: The plural of tragacanth is tragacanths.

Words near tragacanth in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tragacanth (page history and authors); tragacanth (Bengali 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

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