Gluten Meaning
/ˈɡluːtən/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounFibrin (formerly considered as one of the "animal humours").
nounAny gluey, sticky substance.
Sentence Examples
I'm allergic to gluten.
The product may contain trace amounts of nuts and gluten.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Because of her allergy to wheat, she avoids foods containing ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Many people choose to follow a ____-free diet because they have a sensitivity to the protein found in wheat and rye.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French gluten, borrowed from Latin glūten (“glue”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The Radicall or innate, is dayly ſupplied by nouriſhment, which ſome call Cambium, and make thoſe ſecundary Humors of Ros and Gluten to maintaine it: […]"
— 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Division of the Body. Humors, Spirits.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 1, member 2, subsection 2, page 20:
"[T]he Fly suspends it self very firmly and easily, without the access or need of any such Sponges fill'd with an imaginary gluten, as many have, for want of good Glasses, perhaps, or a troublesome and diligent examination, suppos'd."
— 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, XXXVII:
"[H]is nose is running in bubbly gluten over his lips onto his chin […]."
— 1975, Larry Woiwode, Beyond the Bedroom Wall, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, page 188:
"The tyrant machine is the female body, grinding and milling the pulp of matter, the gluten of human flesh."
— 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:
"Chew on a small piece of dough, and it becomes more compact but persists as a gum-like, elastic mass, the residue that the Chinese named “the muscle of flour” and that we call gluten. It consists mainly of protein, and includes what may well be the largest protein molecules to be found in the natural world."
— 2004, Harold McGee, chapter 10, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Scribner, →ISBN:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Because of her allergy to wheat, she avoids foods containing ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Many people choose to follow a ____-free diet because they have a sensitivity to the protein found in wheat and rye.