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# keratin

«keratin» in Mova's school dictionary: **a tough protein that makes up hair, nails, claws, horns…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (keratin — uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

Keratin is a tough protein that makes up hair, nails, claws, horns, hooves, feathers and the outer layer of skin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keratin/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

A science word in lessons about the body and animals: your hair and fingernails are made of keratin, and so are a rhino's horn and a bird's feathers. It explains why cutting hair and nails does not hurt — they are made of dead keratin cells. Phrases: made of keratin, keratin protein.

### examples

- Your fingernails are made of keratin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keratin/#x1)
- A rhino's horn is made of keratin, just like hair. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keratin/#x2)
- Feathers, claws and hooves all contain keratin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keratin/#x3)
- Cutting your hair doesn't hurt because it is dead keratin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keratin/#x4)
- Some shampoos say they contain keratin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keratin/#x5)
- The outer layer of our skin is tough because of keratin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keratin/#x6)

### note

Uncountable. Say: KERR-a-tin. Myth: a rhino horn is not made of bone or ivory, and it has no magic medicine power — it is keratin like our nails, which is why poaching rhinos is so pointless and cruel.

### In the corpora

- [Instead, a curtain of baleen plates hangs from the upper jaw, made of keratin, the same stuff as your fingernails.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/312-whales-by-kind-the-baleen-whales-blue-fin-humpback-grey-right-and-minke/1/)
- [Horns are different: a cow or goat keeps its horns for life, a bone core inside a cover of keratin.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/318-deer-antlers-that-fall-off-and-grow-again-red-deer-roe-deer-moose-muntjac-and-water-deer/4/)
- [Pangolins are among the most smuggled mammals, killed for scales that are only keratin and cure nothing.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/366-odd-looking-animals-shoebills-star-nosed-moles-saigas-pangolins-and-hagfish/14/)
- [Rhino horns are made of keratin, the same stuff as hair and nails, so they rot away and rarely become fossils.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/385-ice-age-ukraine-and-europe-cave-bears-cave-lions-the-siberian-unicorn-and-mammoth-bone-houses/13/)
- [Feathers are made of keratin, the same stuff as our hair and nails.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/73-birds-feathers-nests-flight/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «keratin» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/K/keratin/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.