Lyxose

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of monosaccharide classified as a five-carbon sugar with an aldehyde group, significant in carbohydrate chemistry and sometimes found in nucleotides
2. A pentose sugar characterized by its five carbon atoms and aldehyde functional group, important in some biochemical structures and metabolic pathways
3. A sugar molecule consisting of five carbon atoms with an aldehyde group, known for its role in certain biochemical compounds and structural features in biochemistry

Etymology: Lyxose is a sugar whose name was built by rearranging the letters of another sugar's name. Its model is xylose, the five-carbon sugar derived from wood (the name comes from Greek "xylon", "wood"). Lyxose shares xylose's formula, C5H10O5, but the two differ in how their atoms are arranged in three dimensions, so they are stereoisomers rather than the same molecule. Chemists formed the name by anagram, swapping the letters of "xylose" into "lyxose", a playful naming habit that marks the sugar as a close relative of its more familiar cousin.