noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The protein of which hair and nails are composed. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   a fibrous scleroprotein that occurs in the outer layer of the skin and in horny tissues such as hair, feathers, nails, and hooves wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

ceratinhorn

Example

More examples

"Keratin is one of a family of fibrous structural proteins known as scleroproteins."

Etymology

Borrowed from German Keratin, from Ancient Greek κέρας (kéras, “horn”) + -in.

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