What does "sesquiterpene" mean?

Any terpene formed from three isoprene units, and having fifteen carbon atoms; includes several plant pigments such as the flavones.

Sesquiterpene

Common synonyms include: diterpene, hemiterpene, monoterpene, polyterpene, sesterterpene, tetraterpene.

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any terpene formed from three isoprene units, and having fifteen carbon atoms; includes several plant pigments such as the flavones.

From sesqui- (“one and a half”) + terpene; by comparison with a monoterpene, which has two isoprene units.

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