noun
- Plural of lactose; a natural sugar found in milk and dairy products.
Usage: Countable in technical/scientific contexts when referring to different forms or samples; more commonly used as an uncountable mass noun in general usage.
Examples
- The lactoses in milk are broken down by the enzyme lactase during digestion.
- Different lactoses can be isolated from various dairy sources for research purposes.
- People with lactose intolerance have difficulty digesting the lactoses present in cheese and yogurt.
- The chemist analyzed the lactoses in the samples using chromatography.
- Infant formula often contains lactoses as a primary carbohydrate source.