Words · Familiar
quinine
/kˈwaɪˌnaɪn/ · 7 letters · 5 distinct letters
- noun
a bitter alkaloid extracted from chinchona bark; used in malaria therapy
Word history
The noun is either: derived from Spanish quina (“quinine”) (a clipping of quinaquina (“Cinchona bark”)) + English ine (suffix forming names of chemical substances, especially (among others) alkaloidal substances); or borrowed from French quinine, from quin(quina) (“Cinchona bark”) + ine (feminine form of in (suffix forming nouns)). Spanish quinaquina and French quinquina are both derived from Quechua kina kina, a reduplication of kina (“bark; (specifically) Cinchona bark”). The verb is derived from the noun.
From Wiktionary, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0
Why this word counts
- Where it comes from
- Listed in the English Speller Database at size 35: the core list of everyday words.
- How common it is
- Used about once in every 3 million words.
- In the spelling bee
- Daily answer A standard word with a definition we can show, so it can be a daily answer.