gluco-

1. variant of glyco-:

   glucoprotein.

Example Sentences

Gluco uses a smartphone linked to a special watch to measure blood sugar levels.

From Children's BBC

Gluco uses a smartphone linked to a special watch to measure blood sugar levels.

From BBC

Devices such as “Gluco Phones” to monitor blood sugar levels and iHeal to keep track of substance abusers, stand to shift care into the hands of patients and slowly decrease the burden on health care providers as face-to-face care becomes less frequent, West said.

From Washington Post

Words That Use gluco-

What does gluco- mean?

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-.

Examples of gluco-

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-

Break it down!

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