caffeine

• caffein

Borrowed from French caféine,^[1] from café (“coffee”), or German Caffein, Kaffein^[2] (cp. Coffein, Koffein), from Kaffee (“coffee”) (cp. Kaffe, Koffee, Koffe), or Italian caffè (“coffee”) +‎ -ine.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæfiːn/, /kæˈfiːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æfiːn, -iːn

caffeine (usually uncountable, plural caffeines)

1. An alkaloid, C₈H₁₀N₄O₂, found naturally in tea and coffee plants, which acts as a mild stimulant on the central nervous system. [from 1830]

   Coordinate terms: guaranine, mateine, theine

   • 1839, Justus von Liebig, translated by William Gregory, Instructions for Organic Analysis, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom: Richard Griffin & Company, page 35:

     For example, 0.100 grams of caffeine yield by combustion, by weight, 0.180 grammes of carbonic acid.

   • 1882 October, C. Tanret, “Soluble Salts of Caffeine”, in American Journal of Pharmacy, volume 45, page 495:

     Hitherto, in consequence of its slight solubility, caffeine has been administered hypodermically only in very small doses ; in fact, at the ordinary temperature, it requires 93 parts of water to dissolve, so that a cubic centimeter would contain scarcely more than a centigram.

   • 2024 March 11, Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, “Dark roasted and dangerous: Everything you should know about caffeine intoxication”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     The US Food and Drug Administration defines this limit as anything more than 400 milligrams of caffeine daily for healthy adults. This is equivalent to four or five cups of coffee.

• caffeine on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

caffeine f pl

1. plural of caffeina