sucrose
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of sucrose
Explanation
Sucrose is the chemical name for the ordinary white sugar you stir into your iced tea or mix into your cookie batter. There is also sucrose in honey, maple syrup, and dates. There are many types of sugar, and sucrose is one of the most familiar. The sugar in your sugar bowl is sucrose that's been refined from sugar cane or beets. Other plants naturally produce sucrose, including sorghum and date palm. Eating too much sucrose can be bad for your health — an excessive amount can even lead to type 2 diabetes and tooth decay. Sucrose comes from the French sucre, "sugar," and the chemical ending -ose.
Vocabulary lists containing sucrose
Nutrition - Introductory
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Nutrition - Middle School
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Nutrition - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"The findings suggest that complete removal of sucrose from a low-fat diet may negatively affect gut microbiota and metabolic health," Ahmad said.
From Science Daily • Jun. 14, 2026
Unlike sucrose, which feeds bacteria that cause cavities, tagatose appears to limit the growth of some of those harmful microbes.
From Science Daily • Jan. 13, 2026
Sugar beets — root vegetables that contain high levels of sucrose — are used to produce more than half the sugar in the U.S., alongside sugar cane.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 19, 2025
“When deprived of light and fed a diet of sucrose in fermentation conditions, this algal strain converts that sucrose into fat, lipids, or algal fat – oil,” he said.
From Salon • Apr. 16, 2024
You have to have the factory right there, because sugar starts losing sucrose within hours of being picked.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
