noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A sweet, crystalline compound (not an alkaloid), trimethylammoniumacetate, found in sugar beet and similar plants, sometimes used to treat muscular degeneracy; the zwitterion (CH₃)₃N⁺CH₂COO⁻ uncountable
2. 2
   a sweet tasting alkaloid that occurs in sugar beets wordnet
3. 3
   Any derivative of this compound. countable
4. 4
   Any similar compound, based on sulfur or phosphorus etc, having an onium ion with no hydrogen atom adjacent to the anionic atom. broadly, countable

Synonyms

All synonyms

trimethylglycine

Etymology

From New Latin, from Latin bēta (“beet”) + -ine.

Related phrases

cocamidopropyl betainesugar beet

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.