How to Use chitin in a Sentence

chitin

noun
  • The chitin for use on Mars, the study said, could come from insects.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 16 Sep. 2020
  • Don’t bother fighting with the tails — that bit of crunchy chitin is a bonus.
    — Dominic Armato, azcentral, 20 Nov. 2019
  • It’s made of fibres of chitin, the same substance that makes up most of the mantis shrimp’s shell.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 7 June 2012
  • Loron’s team also identified fibrous chitin in their cell walls.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 15 Dec. 2019
  • Like all insects, ants have exoskeletons made of chitin, which is tough and flexible.
    — National Geographic, 25 Nov. 2020
  • The scales of chitin (a polysaccharide common to insects) are arranged like roof tiles.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 11 Sep. 2020
  • Adding products containing chitin to the soil can help reduce problems.
    — The Editors Of Organic Life, Good Housekeeping, 21 July 2015
  • In this approach, the team sprayed down a layer of chitin, followed by a layer of cellulose.
    — J. Carson Meredith, The Conversation, 17 Mar. 2026
  • And while no one so far has attempted synthesizing chitin in the lab, who knows what the future might hold.
    — Miriam Fauzia, Popular Mechanics, 8 Sep. 2022
  • But Western media still let out an audible cringe at the thought of crunching down on chitin.
    — Kyle Hill, Discover Magazine, 5 June 2013
  • Perhaps the biggest hurdle is the chitin, which is tough to produce is large quantities.
    — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 1 Aug. 2018
  • What contributes to a mushroom’s unique texture is the chitin that is contained within its cell walls.
    — Catherine Hu, Discover Magazine, 23 June 2015
  • Both fungi and insects use the polysaccharide chitin to build cell walls, while plants use cellulose.
    — Eleanor McCrary, USA TODAY, 27 Feb. 2023
  • These fungal tubes are made of rigid cells that contain chitin, the same compound found in insect exoskeletons.
    — Quanta Magazine, 6 Apr. 2026
  • In nature, scales of chitin (a polysaccharide common to insects) are arranged like roof tiles.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 2 Aug. 2022
  • The authors said that the extraction of chitin would be a byproduct of the crew's food supply and consumption.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 16 Sep. 2020
  • Chitin-eating microbes were predictably clinging to the chitin — but there were also bacteria that didn’t eat chitin.
    — Dan Samorodnitsky, Quanta Magazine, 17 Jan. 2024
  • Their bodies are made up of calcium carbonate and chitin, the same material that forms crab shells.
    — Laura Baisas Aug 20, Popular Science, 20 Aug. 2025
  • The brilliant white of its scales does not derive from a pigment, but rather from intricate networks of chitin filaments.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 15 Mar. 2018
  • The exoskeleton of crabs contains chitin, one of the most abundant biodegradable materials in the world.
    — Laine Welch, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Jan. 2018
  • In nature, scales of chitin (a polysaccharide common to insects), for example, are arranged like roof tiles.
    — Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica, 18 Sep. 2023
  • The worm tubes are made of chitin and tough proteins, but the sponge microbes have just the right enzymes to break down these normally indigestible substances.
    — Ed Yong, The Atlantic, 8 Feb. 2022
  • These sprout from trees that the fungi are in the process of consuming from the inside out, transforming lignin and cellulose into chitin.
    — Discover Magazine, 23 Aug. 2012
  • First, Jie extracted chitin nanofibers from crab shells obtained from food waste that are chemically the same as those found in the white beetles.
    — J. Carson Meredith, The Conversation, 17 Mar. 2026
  • Researchers found that a particular arm of the immune system is involved in chitin digestion.
    — Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Oct. 2023
  • That’s because butterflies’ chitin covering is strong—and the addition of the wax layer weakens it.
    — Anil Oza, Science | AAAS, 22 June 2021
  • The beak — also called the jaw — is the only rigid portion, made of chitin, a tough material also found in the shells of crabs, lobsters and insects.
    — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Mushrooms digest cellulose and transform it into chitin, the same material that insect shells are made from.
    — Discover Magazine, 23 Aug. 2012
  • Unlike algae, which are lined with cell walls, lichen contain fungi lined with chitin, the same material that makes up the exoskeletons of insects.
    — Taylor Mitchell Brown, Scientific American, 25 Nov. 2025
  • The team identified chitin in the microfossils' cell walls — the oldest such evidence of the fibrous substance.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 22 May 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'chitin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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