isinglass
i·sin·glass/ˈaɪzɪŋɡlæs/noun
isinglass is a noun meaning “A form of gelatin obtained from the air bladder of the sturgeon and certain other fish, used as an adhesive and as a clarifying agent for wine and…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled I-S-I-N-G-L-A-S-S and has 3 syllables (i·sin·glass), and it appears about once in every 20 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of isinglass is isinglasses.
What does isinglass mean?
noun
- 1
A form of gelatin obtained from the air bladder of the sturgeon and certain other fish, used as an adhesive and as a clarifying agent for wine and beer.
- 2
A thin, transparent sheet of mica (probably from its similarity to true isinglass and/or resulting from confusion with the term Muscovy glass for glazing made from mica, but also used for isinglass, which was chiefly produced in the Caspian Sea region of Russia, or Muscovy).
There is a general error prevalent that mica is isinglass, and many times it is spoken of as isinglass, but there is a great difference between the two. Mica is mainly composed of silicate of aluminum, while isinglass is a fish gelatine or
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce isinglass?
- UK /ˈaɪzɪŋɡlɑːs/
- US /ˈaɪzɪŋɡlæs/
Isinglass has 3 syllables, split i·sin·glass in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-isinglass.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of isinglass
- isinglasses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is isinglass?
Isinglass appears about once in every 20 million words in written English, the 136,649th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Isinglass in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense gelatine obtained from fish:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ichtyocolle, carlock, colle de poisson |
| German | Hausenblase |
| Spanish | cola de pescado, colapez, colapiscis |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does isinglass come from?
Apparently from obsolete Dutch huisenblas, from German Hausenblase, from Hausen (“sturgeon of the Huso genus”) + Blase (“bladder”), with alteration after glass.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).