Standard Lemma guide

oligosaccharide

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.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ɒl.ɪ.ɡəʊˈsæk.əˌɹaɪd/
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A polysaccharide of low molecular weight, being a polymer of between three and eight monosaccharide units.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: carbohydrate, saccharide, sugar

Narrower terms: disaccharide, tetrasaccharide, trisaccharide

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek ὀλῐ́γος (olĭ́gos)der. English oligo- Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh2 Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćárkaraH Proto-Indo-Aryan *śárkaraH Sanskrit शर्क॑रा (śárkarā) Pali sakkharābor. Ancient Greek σάκχᾰρον (sákkhăron)bor. Latin saccharon Latin saccharum English saccharo- Proto-Indo-European *dheh1-der. Proto-Italic *-iðos Latin -idusder. English -ide English saccharide English oligosaccharide From oligo- + saccharide.

Across languages

Translations

15 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: oligosacàrid — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Chinese Cantonese: 寡醣 /寡糖 (gwaa2 tong4) — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Chinese Mandarin: 寡醣 /寡糖 (guǎtáng) — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Finnish: oligosakkaridi — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • French: oligosaccharide — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • French: oligoholoside — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • French: oligoside — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Hungarian: oligoszacharid — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Italian: oligosaccaride — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Japanese: オリゴ糖 (origotō) — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Kazakh: олигосахарид (oligosaxarid) — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Malay: oligosakarida — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Romanian: oligozaharidă — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Spanish: oligosacárido — polysaccharide of low molecular weight
  • Turkish: oligosakkarit — polysaccharide of low molecular weight