Choline
//ˈkoʊliːn// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A hydroxy quaternary ammonium compound with formula (CH₃)₃N⁺CH₂CH₂OHX⁻. It is an essential nutrient for cardiovascular and brain health and for cell membrane formation. uncountable, usually
- 2 a B-complex vitamin that is a constituent of lecithin; essential in the metabolism of fat wordnet
Etymology
Coined from Ancient Greek χολή (kholḗ, “bile”). The chemical compound was first isolated by Adolph Strecker from pig and ox bile (hence the name) in 1862. It was also named neurine when chemically synthesized by Oscar Liebreich in 1865, until 1898 when shown to be identical to choline.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.