What does "carrageenan" mean?

A food additive made from a purified extract of red seaweed, commonly used as a thickening agent.

How do you pronounce "carrageenan"?

Pronounced //ˌkɛɹəˈɡinən//.

Common synonyms include: carrageenin, carrageenin, e407, e407 when used as a thickener, gelling agent and emulsifier, stabiliser.

//ˌkɛɹəˈɡinən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A food additive made from a purified extract of red seaweed, commonly used as a thickening agent. uncountable, usually
2
a colloidal extract from carrageen seaweed and other red algae wordnet

From carrageen + -an, an alternative form of -in.

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