Phrase guide

fatty acid

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

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Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of a class of aliphatic carboxylic acids, of general formula CnH2n+1COOH, that occur combined with glycerol as animal or vegetable oils and fats. Only those with an even number of carbon atoms are normally found in natural fats.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, microbiology, natural-sciences, organic-chemistry, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

any of a class of aliphatic monocarboxylic acids that form part of a lipid molecule and can be derived from fat by hydrolysis; fatty acids are simple molecules built around a series of carbon atoms linked together in a chain of 12 to 22 carbon atoms

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: carboxylic acid

Narrower terms: saturated fatty acid, unsaturated fatty acid, trans fatty acid

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

48 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Belarusian: тлу́стая кіслата́ (tlústaja kislatá) — acid
  • Bulgarian: ма́стна киселина́ (mástna kiseliná) — acid
  • Catalan: àcid gras — acid
  • Chinese Cantonese: 脂肪酸 (zi1 fong1 syun1) — acid
  • Chinese: 脂肪酸 (chi-hông-sng, chí-hông-sng) — acid
  • Chinese Mandarin: 脂肪酸 (zhīfángsuān) — acid
  • Chinese Mandarin: 脂酸 (zhīsuān) — acid
  • Czech: mastná kyselina — acid
  • Danish: fedtsyre — acid
  • Dutch: vetzuur — acid
  • Faroese: fitisýra — acid
  • Finnish: rasvahappo — acid
  • French: acide gras — acid
  • Galician: ácido graxo — acid
  • German: Fettsäure — acid
  • Greek: λιπαρό οξύ (liparó oxý) — acid
  • Hindi: वसीय अम्ल (vasīya amla) — acid
  • Hungarian: zsírsav — acid
  • Icelandic: fitusýra — acid
  • Indonesian: asam lemak — acid
  • Irish: aigéad sailleach — acid
  • Italian: acido grasso — acid
  • Japanese: 脂肪酸 (shibōsan) — acid
  • Javanese: ꦲꦱꦩ꧀ꦊꦩꦏ꧀ (asam lemak) — acid
  • Kannada: ಕೊಬ್ಬಿನ ಆಮ್ಲ (kobbina āmla) — acid
  • Kazakh: майлы қышқыл (maily qyşqyl) — acid
  • Khmer: អាស៊ីតខ្លាញ់ (ʼaasiit khlañ) — acid
  • Korean: 지방산 (jibangsan) — acid
  • Northern Kurdish: asîda çewrî — acid
  • Latvian: taukskābe — acid
  • Macedonian: масна киселина (masna kiselina) — acid
  • Māori: waikawa ngako — acid
  • Norwegian Bokmål: fettsyre — acid
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: feittsyre — acid
  • Polish: kwas tłuszczowy — acid
  • Portuguese: ácido graxo — acid
  • Romanian: acid gras — acid
  • Russian: жи́рная кислота́ (žírnaja kislotá) — acid
  • Serbo-Croatian: ма̑сна̄ киселѝна — acid
  • Serbo-Croatian: mȃsnā kiselìna — acid
  • Spanish: ácido graso — acid
  • Sundanese: ᮃᮞᮙ᮪ ᮜᮨᮙᮊ᮪ (asam lemak) — acid
  • Swedish: fettsyra — acid
  • Tamil: கொழுப்பு அமிலம் (koḻuppu amilam) — acid
  • Thai: กรดไขมัน (gròt-kǎi-man) — acid
  • Turkish: yağ asidi — acid
  • Ukrainian: жи́рна кислота́ (žýrna kyslotá) — acid
  • Welsh: asid brasterog — acid