What does vitamine mean?
Vitamine is a chiefly historical English spelling of vitamin. As a noun, it denotes an organic micronutrient that a living organism needs in small quantities for normal growth, metabolism, and bodily function. Vitamins are obtained from food or, in some cases, produced by the body or supplied in supplements. The older spelling evokes early twentieth-century nutrition research and medical writing, when names such as “vitamine” were used for newly isolated dietary factors. In present-day English, however, vitamin is overwhelmingly preferred, and the unmodified form vitamine is rare. The word is therefore useful chiefly for reading older scientific, historical, or literary texts, rather than as a current choice in neutral prose. Despite its dated appearance, its meaning is straightforward: it refers to a class of nutrients, not to a single medicine and not to the energy or calories they provide.
nounA vitamin: an organic compound essential in small quantities for normal growth and metabolism. In modern English, vitamin is the standard spelling; vitamine is a chiefly historical variant.
- A vitamin, especially as understood in early twentieth-century nutrition and medical terminology.
"The early nutrition papers called the anti-beriberi factor a vitamine."
"The early nutrition papers called the anti-beriberi factor a vitamine."
"In older medical writing, avitaminosis referred to a condition caused by the deficiency of a particular vitamine."
The plural is rare because the spelling itself is chiefly historical; vitamins is the standard modern form.
"Older medical texts sometimes referred to essential dietary factors as “vitamines.”"
Vitamine is the original outfit of “vitamin”—the same scientific idea, with a letter that time eventually dropped.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of vitamine
English borrowed the term from French vitamine, a French coinage formed from Latin vita, meaning “life,” and the chemical ending amine. It circulated in English during the early twentieth century, when scientific writers were naming newly recognized dietary factors. The spelling vitamin subsequently became standard, while vitamine survived mainly in older and deliberately antiquarian usage.
Related word forms
How vitamine is actually used
Rare, formal, and chiefly historical; it can sound deliberately antiquarian or be encountered in older scientific, medical, and literary texts.
Easily confused with vitamine
Vitamin is the standard modern spelling; vitamine is a rare older spelling of the same noun, not a different substance.