Standard Lemma guide

pentose

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

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A sugar or saccharide containing five carbon atoms.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

Examples

  • Ribose, found in RNA, is a common pentose.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: monosaccharide

2

noun

Meaning 2

any monosaccharide sugar containing five atoms of carbon per molecule

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: monosaccharide, monosaccharose, simple sugar

History

Etymology

Internationalism, from penta- (“five”) + -ose.

Across languages

Translations

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: pentosa — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Chinese Cantonese: 戊醣 /戊糖 (mou6 tong4) — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Chinese Cantonese: 五碳醣 /五碳糖 (ng5 taan3 tong4) — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Chinese Mandarin: 戊糖 (wùtáng) — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Chinese Mandarin: 五碳糖 (wǔtàntáng) — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Esperanto: pentozo — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Finnish: pentoosi — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Hindi: पंचधु (pañcdhu) — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Hungarian: pentóz — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Italian: pentoso — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Italian: pentosio — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Japanese: ペントース (pentōsu) — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Korean: 오탄당 (otandang) — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Korean: 펜토스 (pentoseu) — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Portuguese: pentose — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Spanish: pentosa — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Swedish: pentos — saccharide containing five carbon atoms
  • Turkish: pentoz — saccharide containing five carbon atoms