Nicotine

//ˈnɪkətiːn// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An alkaloid (C₁₀H₁₄N₂), commonly occurring in the tobacco plant. uncountable

    "She is addicted to nicotine."

  2. 2
    an alkaloid poison that occurs in tobacco; used in medicine and as an insecticide wordnet
  3. 3
    Tobacco or cigarettes. figuratively, uncountable

    "He's got nicotine stains on his fingers."

Synonyms

All synonyms
arsenicddtpoison

Example

More examples

"He said that his previous dentist told him that he'd remove nicotine stains if he stopped smoking."

Etymology

Borrowed from French nicotine, equivalent to Nicot + -ine, named after Jean Nicot (1530–1604), the French ambassador to Portugal, who sent tobacco seeds back to France in 1561. The etymology of the surname itself is unclear.

Related phrases

nicotine alkaloidnicotine gumnicotine patchnicotine polacrilexnicotine stomatitishabit forming

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