vanillin
va·nil·lin/vəˈnɪlɪn/noun
vanillin is a noun meaning “A chemical compound, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, that is the primary constituent of vanilla” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-A-N-I-L-L-I-N and has 3 syllables (va·nil·lin), and it appears about once in every 12 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of vanillin is vanillins.
What does vanillin mean?
noun
- 1
A chemical compound, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, that is the primary constituent of vanilla.
- 2
A synthetic compound used as a substitute for the extract of the vanilla bean.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce vanillin?
- /vəˈnɪlɪn/
- /ˈvænəlɪn/
Vanillin has 3 syllables, split va·nil·lin in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-vanillin.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of vanillin
- vanillins plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is vanillin?
Vanillin appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 105,204th 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).
Vanillin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense primary constituent of vanilla:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | vanilline |
| German | Vanillin |
| Spanish | vainillina |
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 vanillin come from?
From vanilla + -in.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).