hydrolysis
Meaning of hydrolysis: Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction that uses water to break a larger molecule into smaller components, a process central to digestion.
Definition of hydrolysis
Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction in which a water molecule is used to break a chemical bond, splitting a larger molecule into two or more smaller components. The word describes the mechanism of the reaction itself rather than any single substance or process.
Hydrolysis plays a central role in digestion, where enzymes called hydrolases use this reaction to break down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars, proteins into amino acids, and fats into fatty acids and glycerol, allowing these smaller molecules to be absorbed and used by the body.
Hydrolysis is also relevant elsewhere in medicine and biology, including in the way the body breaks down certain medications through a similar water dependent reaction, and in various laboratory and industrial processes that rely on the same basic chemistry to break larger molecules into simpler components.
How hydrolysis is built
- hydr/o Combining form · Greek water, fluid
- -lysis Suffix · Greek breakdown, destruction, separation
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
Used in a sentence
Digestive enzymes catalyzed the hydrolysis of dietary proteins into individual amino acids.
Good to know
Hydrolysis describes the mechanism of a reaction rather than a specific substance, so the term applies equally to digestion in the body and to unrelated chemical processes that break bonds using water.
Word origin
Where “hydrolysis” comes from
Formed from Greek hydro-, meaning water, and lysis, meaning loosening or breaking down.