glucose

glucose — noun

1. a simple sugar that living things use as their main source of energy; it occurs

1.nounB2
Definition

a simple sugar that living things use as their main source of energy; it occurs naturally in fruits and other plants.

Example

Diya learned in biology class that glucose gives energy to every cell in the body.

glucose gives energy to every cell — subject + verb + indirect object

The doctor told Mr. Karim to check his blood glucose levels after meals.

collocation: blood glucose level

Common collocations
  • blood glucose
  • glucose level
  • glucose tablet
  • glucose drink
  • stored glucose
Synonyms
  • dextrose

    the same chemical substance, used mainly in medical and food-industry contexts

  • sugar

    a broader, everyday term; glucose is one specific type of sugar

Usage Note

Glucose is an uncountable noun and does not have a plural form. It commonly appears as a modifier in compound medical terms such as blood glucose level and glucose tolerance test.

Common Mistakes

The doctor checked my glucoses.
The doctor checked my glucose level.
Glucose is uncountable and cannot take a plural -s ending.

Word family

  • glycemic
    adjectiveC1
  • glucagon
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Glucose, fructose, and sucrose are all types of sugar found in food, but they differ in how the body processes them. Glucose is the simplest form and the body's primary fuel — every cell can use it directly. Fructose (fruit sugar) must be converted to glucose by the liver before cells can use it. Sucrose (table sugar) is a combination of glucose and fructose bonded together. Carbohydrate is a much broader category that includes starches and fibres in addition to sugars; during digestion, most carbohydrates break down into glucose. In everyday conversation, people say 'sugar' for any sweetener, but in medical or nutritional contexts, glucose is the precise term for the sugar that circulates in the bloodstream. For example, your body turns the carbohydrate in a slice of bread into glucose, not into sucrose.

sugar ↗fructosesucrosecarbohydrate ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • blood glucose
  • glucose level
  • glucose test
  • glucose tablet
  • glucose monitor
  • glucose solution

Phrases

  • glucose tolerance test
  • blood glucose meter
  • glucose-lowering medication

Prepositions

  • of glucose
  • in glucose

Etymology

GreekFrenchEnglish

The word glucose comes from the Greek gleukos, meaning 'sweet wine'. The French chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas coined the English term in the 1830s, adapting it from the Greek root through French.