CELLULOSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cellulose mean? 

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

1. a polysaccharide that is the chief constituent of all plant tissues and fibers

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• CELLULOSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A polysaccharide that is the chief constituent of all plant tissues and fibers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

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

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

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

carboxymethyl cellulose (an acid derivative of cellulose)

DEAE cellulose; diethylaminoethyl cellulose (used for chromatography)

pulp (a mixture of cellulose fibers)

pectin (any of various water-soluble colloidal carbohydrates that occur in ripe fruit and vegetables; used in making fruit jellies and jams)

Holonyms ("cellulose" is a substance of...):

cellulose ester (any ester of cellulose with an acid)

cellulosic (a plastic made from cellulose (or a derivative of cellulose))

fiber; fibre (a slender and greatly elongated substance capable of being spun into yarn)

paper (a material made of cellulose pulp derived mainly from wood or rags or certain grasses)

 Context examples 

A class of polysaccharides found in plant cell walls that surround the cellulose fibers.

(Hemicellulose, NCI Thesaurus/CRCH)

A microscopy staining method that utilizes calcofluor, a fluorescent dye that preferentially stains chitin and cellulose on the cell walls of fungi, parasites, and some cysts of the Pneumocystis genus.

(Calcofluor White Staining Method, NCI Thesaurus)

Carbohydrates can be small and simple (for example, glucose) or they can be large and complex (for example, polysaccharides such as starch, chitin or cellulose).

(Carbohydrate, NCI Dictionary)

The largest class of organic compounds, including starches, glycogens, cellulose, gums, and simple sugars.

(Carbohydrate, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Microcrystalline cellulose and starch are examples of disintegrants.

(Disintegrant Excipient, NCI Thesaurus)

A microscopy staining method that utilizes Iodine, an element belonging to the halogen group, which specifically stains polysaccharides such as cellulose, chitin, glycogen, and starch a blue color.

(Iodine Staining Method, NCI Thesaurus)

This species is nonmotile, non-spore forming, requires cellulose or cellobiose to grow, does not reduce nitrate, does not hydrolyze starch, and is catalase, urease, gelatinase, and indole negative.

(Bacteroides cellulosolvens, NCI Thesaurus)

The main building blocks of wood are the secondary walls around each wood cell, which are made of a matrix of large polymers called cellulose and hemicellulose, and impregnated with lignin.

(Revealing the nanostructure of wood could help raise height limits for wooden skyscrapers, University of Cambridge)

In contrast, the thinner cell walls have lower thermal conductivity due to cellulose chains being almost at a right angle to the plant stem.

(Visualising heat flow in bamboo could help design more energy-efficient and fire-safe buildings, University of Cambridge)

It is typically a mixture of cellulose, hemicellulose, pectins and gums (DRI).

(Non-Starch Polysaccharide, NCI Thesaurus/CRCH)