Dictionary entry

Monosaccharide

Webster's Dictionary 1913

{ Mon′o‐sac″cha‐ride (?), n. Also –rid }. [Mono- + saccharide.] (Chem.) A simple sugar; any of a number of sugars (including the trioses, tetroses, pentoses, hexoses, etc.), not decomposable into simpler sugars by hydrolysis. Specif., as used by some, a hexose. The monosaccharides are all open-chain compounds containing hydroxyl groups and either an aldehyde group or a ketone group.