What does "phospholipid" mean?

Any lipid, such as lecithin or cephalin, consisting of a diglyceride combined with a phosphate group and a simple organic molecule such as choline or ethanolamine; they are important constituents of biological membranes.

What is a synonym for "phospholipid"?

Common synonyms include: phosphatide, phosphatide.

How do you pronounce "phospholipid"?

Pronounced //ˌfɑs.foʊˈlɪ.pɪd//.

Phospholipid

//ˌfɑs.foʊˈlɪ.pɪd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any lipid, such as lecithin or cephalin, consisting of a diglyceride combined with a phosphate group and a simple organic molecule such as choline or ethanolamine; they are important constituents of biological membranes.
"An index of the amount of phospholipids present was secured from the total phosphorus content of a third aliquot, the method employed being the colorimetric procedure devised by Whitehorn."
2
any of various compounds composed of fatty acids and phosphoric acid and a nitrogenous base; an important constituent of membranes wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

phosphatide phosphatide

Example

More examples

"An index of the amount of phospholipids present was secured from the total phosphorus content of a third aliquot, the method employed being the colorimetric procedure devised by Whitehorn."

Etymology

From phospho- + lipid.

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