Vitamin

How to spell vitamin

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce vitamin

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vitamin mean?

1. nounAny of a group of natural substances the body needs in small amounts for normal health and growth.

Vitamin in a sentence

• Oranges are a good source of vitamin C.

• The doctor suggested a daily vitamin supplement during the winter months.

Where does vitamin come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word was coined in 1912 by the Polish-born biochemist Casimir Funk, who combined the Latin vita, meaning 'life', with the chemical term 'amine', a class of nitrogen-containing compounds. He originally wrote it 'vitamine', because he believed these life-giving food factors were all amines. When later research showed that not all of them actually contained an amine group, the final 'e' was quietly dropped to give the modern 'vitamin', leaving the spelling slightly disconnected from its chemical origin. The 'vita' element is the same root that lives on in 'vital', 'vitality', and 'revitalise', all carrying the sense of life and liveliness. Knowing that 'vita' means life is the handy memory hook for the first three letters, while remembering it is no longer 'amine' explains the missing 'e' at the end.

How the word is built

• vita (Latin: life)
• -amin (from amine, a nitrogen compound)