gluco-

Gluco- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “sugar” or “glucose and its derivatives.” Glucose is a sugar found in many fruits, animal tissues and fluids, and other sources. Gluco- is occasionally used in scientific terms, especially in chemistry.

Gluco- comes from Greek glykýs, meaning “sweet.” While the Greek letter upsilon is usually transliterated into English as y, it is occasionally adapted as u, as we can see with gluco-. The Latin translation (and perhaps cognate) of glykýs is dulcis, “sweet,” which is the source of sweetness-related terms such as dulcet and, through Italian, dolce vita. To learn more, check out our entries for both words.

What are variants of gluco-?

When combined with words or word elements that begin with a vowel, gluco- becomes gluc-, as in glucide.

More common variants of gluco- are glyco- and glyc-, as in glycogenetic and glycol.  Want to know more? Read our Words That Use articles about gluc-, glyco-, and glyc-.

A scientific term that uses the form gluco- is glucophore, “a chemical group responsible for sweetness of taste.”

The gluco- part of the word means “sugar,” but what about the -phore part of the word? The combining form -phore means “bearer of,” from Greek -phoros. Glucophore literally translates to “bearer of sugar.”

What are some words that use the combining form gluco-?

• glucochlorose
• glucogenesis (using the equivalent form of gluco- in Latin)
• glucokinase
• glucolipid
• glucoprotein

What are some other forms that gluco- may be commonly confused with?

• glio-
• glosso-
• glotto-
• gymno-
• gyro-
• leuco-
• lyso-

The combining form -genesis means “an origin, creation, or beginning.” With this in mind, what does glucogenesis mean?