margarine

American  

[mahr-jer-in, -juh-reen, mahrj-rin] / ˈmɑr dʒər ɪn, -dʒəˌrin, ˈmɑrdʒ rɪn /

noun

margarines plural

1. a butterlike product made of refined vegetable oils, sometimes blended with animal fats, and emulsified, usually with water or milk.

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margarine British  

/ ˌmɑːdʒəˈriːn, ˌmɑːɡə- /

noun

1. a substitute for butter, prepared from vegetable and animal fats by emulsifying them with water and adding small amounts of milk, salt, vitamins, colouring matter, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• margarines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of margarine

1870–75; from French margarin, a glyceryl ester of margar(ic acid) ( def. ) + -in -ine ²

Explanation

Margarine is a butter substitute that's made from oil. One brand of margarine goes by the name "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." Try it, and see if you can tell the difference... Margarine looks a lot like butter — it comes in sticks and in a very soft, spreadable form in a tub. Instead of the butterfat from milk being churned until it's solid (the process for making butter), margarine is made by emulsifying (thickly blending) oil with other fats and ingredients that make it creamy. Margarine was invented in the 1860s by a French scientist.

Example Sentences

Margarine, some types of peanut butter, and shortening are examples of artificially hydrogenated trans fats.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Margarine and soap magnates like Britain's William Lever looked to Europe's colonies in Africa for larger quantities of fresher, edible palm oil.

From Salon • Jul. 4, 2021

The company's unusual current structure comes from the merger 90 years ago of soap maker Lever Brothers and Dutch spreads maker Margarine Unie.

From BBC • Jun. 11, 2020

Unilever’s Anglo-Dutch structure dates back to 1929 when British soap maker Lever Brothers combined with Dutch margarine company Margarine Unie.

From Reuters • Oct. 5, 2018

Cheskin told his client to call their product Imperial Margarine, so they could put an impressive-looking crown on the package.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

Related Words

• oil
• shortening