Meaning & use
carbohydrate
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountabletechnical
A substance in food such as sugar or starch that the body uses mainly for energy.
Grammar: Can be uncountable as a general substance (foods high in carbohydrate) or countable for types (simple carbohydrates).
Patterns
- be high in carbohydrate
- eat carbohydrates
- complex carbohydrates
Bread, rice, and potatoes are all rich in carbohydrate.
Athletes often eat extra carbohydrates before a big event.
Nutrition labels list the total carbohydrate in each serving.
nouncountablechemistrybiology
One of the group of organic compounds, including sugars and starches, made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
Grammar: Used in chemistry for a class of compounds; often plural: carbohydrates include sugars and starches.
Patterns
- a type of carbohydrate
- simple carbohydrates
- break down carbohydrates
Glucose is a simple carbohydrate.
The body breaks down carbohydrates into sugars it can absorb.
Chemists classify starches and sugars as carbohydrates.
Word forms
| plural | carbohydrates |
|---|
Common combinations
- complex carbohydrates
- Whole grains provide complex carbohydrates that digest slowly.
- simple carbohydrates
- Sweets are full of simple carbohydrates.
- high in carbohydrates
- This meal is high in carbohydrates and low in fat.
- carbohydrate intake
- Doctors may ask patients to reduce their carbohydrate intake.
- a source of carbohydrates
- Pasta is a cheap source of carbohydrates.
Synonyms and how they differ
- carb
- An informal short form used in everyday speech and on food labels; carbohydrate is the full, more formal word.
- sugar
- Sugar is one kind of carbohydrate, not a general word for the whole group.
- starch
- Starch is a specific complex carbohydrate found in foods like potatoes, not a synonym for all carbohydrates.
Word family
- carbohydrate-rich adjective
- Containing a lot of carbohydrates.
Commonly confused: carbohydrate or carbonate? carbohydrate or calorie?
carbohydrate vs carbonate
A carbonate is a chemical salt containing carbon and oxygen, quite different from a food carbohydrate.
carbohydrate vs calorie
Calories measure energy; carbohydrates are one nutrient that provides them.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses carbohydrate correctly.
Choose one answer.
'A source of carbohydrates' is the normal pattern for a nutrient. 'Carbonates' are unrelated chemicals, 'carbo-load' is a verb, and 'carbohydrates-rich' wrongly puts the adjective after the noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “carbohydrate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.