cholesterol
noun
Simple meaning
An animal sterol that is normally synthesized by the liver.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhlehsterawlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kəˈlɛstɚɔl
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
biochemistry
An animal sterol that is normally synthesized by the liver; the most abundant steroid in animal tissues
biochemistry
A sterol lipid synthesized by the liver and transported in the bloodstream to the membranes of all animal cells; it plays a central role in many biochemical processes and, as a lipoprotein that coats the walls of blood vessels, is associated with cardiovascular disease.
The level of cholesterol in the body.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An animal sterol that is normally synthesized by the liver; the most abundant steroid in animal tissues
Used this way, cholesterol is a specialist word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Rich and abundant
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use cholesterol
- “Eating a healthy diet helps to maintain good cholesterol levels.”
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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.