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Definition of "carotenoid" [carotenoid]

  • Any of a class of yellow to red pigments, including the carotenes and the xanthophylls. (noun)
  • Of or relating to such a pigment. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "carotenoid" in a sentence
  • "He was soon drawn deeply into studies of how the small variations in carotenoid structures are involved in biological functions."
  • "It starts with shorter days, which triggers a whole series of processes, says Ed Hedborn, a botanist who manages plant records at the Morton Arboretum outside Chicago in Lisle, Ill. With less daylight, trees and other plants stop making chlorophyll, whose absence unmasks the yellow, orange and brown hues of the pigment carotenoid, which is always in the leaves, but hidden by the green."
  • "Carotenoids are a group of over 600 compounds known as the carotenoid pigments."