CARBOHYDRATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does carbohydrate mean? 

• CARBOHYDRATE (noun)
  The noun CARBOHYDRATE has 1 sense:

1. an essential structural component of living cells and source of energy for animals; includes simple sugars with small molecules as well as macromolecular substances; are classified according to the number of monosaccharide groups they contain

  Familiarity information: CARBOHYDRATE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CARBOHYDRATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An essential structural component of living cells and source of energy for animals; includes simple sugars with small molecules as well as macromolecular substances; are classified according to the number of monosaccharide groups they contain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

carbohydrate; saccharide; sugar

Hypernyms ("carbohydrate" is a kind of...):

macromolecule; supermolecule (any very large complex molecule; found only in plants and animals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "carbohydrate"):

ribose (a pentose sugar important as a component of ribonucleic acid)

beet sugar (sugar made from sugar beets)

cane sugar (sucrose obtained from sugar cane)

deoxyribose (a sugar that is a constituent of nucleic acids)

invert sugar (a mixture of equal parts of glucose and fructose resulting from the hydrolysis of sucrose; found naturally in fruits; sweeter than glucose)

maple sugar (sugar made from the sap of the sugar maple tree)

monosaccharide; monosaccharose; simple sugar (a sugar (like sucrose or fructose) that does not hydrolyse to give other sugars; the simplest group of carbohydrates)

oligosaccharide (any of the carbohydrates that yield only a few monosaccharide molecules on complete hydrolysis)

polyose; polysaccharide (any of a class of carbohydrates whose molecules contain chains of monosaccharide molecules)

jaggary; jaggery; jagghery (unrefined brown sugar made from palm sap)

wood sugar; xylose (a sugar extracted from wood or straw; used in foods for diabetics)

 Context examples 

Fatty acids are also more highly reduced than carbohydrates, so they provide more energy during oxidation.

(Beta-Oxidation of Fatty Acids Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The peptide carbohydrate moiety of this agent stabilizes the lactone form of camptothecin in blood.

(BAY 56-3722, NCI Thesaurus)

Food is made up of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

(Metabolic Disorders, NIH)

This discipline depicts the physiological states of cells and organisms by focusing on carbohydrates, lipids, and other metabolites.

(Metabolomics, NCI Thesaurus)

In alternative medicine, a theory that people fall into one of three groups (protein, carbohydrate, or mixed type) based on the main type of food that their bodies need to stay healthy.

(Metabolic type, NCI Dictionary)

This species is nonmotile, non-spore forming, urease positive, catalase negative, oxidase positive, does not produce indole, hydrolyzes gelatin and casein but not starch, reduces nitrate, produces hydrogen sulfide, and does not ferment carbohydrates.

(Bacteroides ureolyticus, NCI Thesaurus)

In contrast, a commonly used pancreatic cancer biomarker called carbohydrate antigen 19-9 couldn’t distinguish people with precancerous lesions from healthy controls.

(Method for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer, NIH)

This protein is involved in the generation of fucosylated carbohydrate structures.

(Alpha-(1,3)-Fucosyltransferase, NCI Thesaurus)

A volatile liquid prepared by fermentation of certain carbohydrates.

(Alcohol, NCI Thesaurus)

Cell surface carbohydrate molecules of the Lewis Y or Lewis X type that are detectable with monoclonal antibody B3.

(B3 Antigen, NCI Thesaurus)