carbohydrate
noun
Simple meaning
A sugar, starch, or cellulose that is a food source of energy for an animal or plant.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahrbohhydraytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kɑɹboʊˈhaɪdɹeɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
organic chemistrynutrition
A sugar, starch, or cellulose that is a food source of energy for an animal or plant.
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
colloquialby extensionmetonymic
Any food rich in starch or other carbohydrates.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: (organic chemistry, nutrition) A sugar, starch, or cellulose that is a food source of energy for an animal or plant.
Used this way, carbohydrate is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- saccharide , rarer, so it draws attention
- sugar , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: sugar or starch
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.