Insulin

//ˈɪnsəlɪn// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A polypeptide hormone that regulates carbohydrate metabolism (in various animals including humans). countable, uncountable

    "Mommy said that Grandma's diabetes happened because her body stopped making its own insulin."

  2. 2
    hormone secreted by the isles of Langerhans in the pancreas; regulates storage of glycogen in the liver and accelerates oxidation of sugar in cells wordnet
  3. 3
    Any exogenous preparation of this hormone for use as a medication. countable, uncountable

    "The advent of insulin in the mid-20th century changed the lives of millions of people with diabetes."

  4. 4
    Any exogenous preparation of this hormone or its analogues for use as a medication. broadly, countable, uncountable

    "A: What kind of insulin do you take? B: I use basal-bolus therapy, which in my case involves glargine and lispro."

Synonyms

All synonyms
hormone

Example

More examples

"The insulin was making her fat."

Etymology

From Latin īnsula (“island”) (named for the islets of Langerhans, where insulin is produced) + -in.

Related phrases

human insulininsulin aspartinsulin degludecinsulin detemirinsulin glargineinsulin glulisineinsulin lisproinsulin plantinsulin resistanceinsulin shock therapyinsulin-like growth factorneutral insulin

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