Lipid

How to spell lipid

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lipid

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lipid mean?

1. nounAny of a class of fatty or oily organic compounds, including fats, oils, and waxes, that do not dissolve in water.

Lipid in a sentence

• The blood test measured her cholesterol and total lipid levels.

• Every cell membrane is built from a double layer of lipid molecules.

Where does lipid come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word lipid traces back to the ancient Greek lipos, which simply meant 'fat' or 'animal grease'. In the early twentieth century French chemists coined the term lipide to name the broad class of fatty compounds, including oils, waxes, and the fatty acids found in living cells. English adopted it as lipid in the 1920s, dropping the French final 'e' and keeping the scientific '-id' ending that also appears in words such as 'peptide' and 'steroid'. The same Greek root survives in related scientific terms like 'liposuction' and 'liposome', so remembering that lip means 'fat' helps fix the single 'p' and the short vowel. The spelling stays stubbornly close to its Greek origin, with no doubling and a plain '-id' tail.

How the word is built

• lip- (from Greek lipos: fat)
• -id (noun suffix denoting a chemical substance)