Niacin

//ˈnaɪəsɪn// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A water-soluble vitamin, a component of vitamin B complex, found in meat, yeast, and dairy products; it is essential to metabolism. uncountable

    "Mixing the alkali into the recipe in the right way chemically releases the otherwise unavailable niacin in the corn, which stops pellagra in its tracks, and allowed corn-based agricultural populations to grow and spread."

  2. 2
    a B vitamin essential for the normal function of the nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
nicotinic acidnicotinic acidacidaderminaneurinantiberi-beri factor

Example

More examples

"Niacin is a vitamin, also known as vitamin B3."

Etymology

in 1942 derived from nicotinic + acid + vitamin, chosen to dissociate it from nicotine, to avoid the perception that vitamins or niacin-rich food contains nicotine, or that cigarettes contain vitamins.

Related phrases

vitamin b complex

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