Lipid

//ˈlɪpɪd// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of a group of organic compounds including the fats, oils, waxes, sterols, and triglycerides. Lipids are characterized by being insoluble in water, and account for most of the fat present in the human body.

    "Without lipids your body eats your fat and then your muscles, and the brain is pure fat and the heart is a muscle. You become a feedback loop, and then you fall over."

  2. 2
    an oily organic compound insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents; essential structural component of living cells (along with proteins and carbohydrates) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
animal oilceratecholesteroldrying oilessential oilester

Example

More examples

"The smooth endoplasmic reticulum is the organelle responsible for lipid synthesis."

Etymology

Borrowed from French lipide, coined 1923 by Gabriel Bertrand from Ancient Greek λῐ́πος (lĭ́pos, “animal fat”) + French -ide.

Related phrases

reinforced lipid

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.