• A class of dietary lipids containing a long-chained sphingosine group (unsaturated amino alcohol with formula C18H37NO2), fatty acids bound to the NH2 group as an amide, and either sugars or phosphoric acid and alcohols bound to the primary hydroxy group.
  CRCH Nutrition Terminology
  Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii, 2021
• Any lipid derived from the aliphatic amino alcohol sphingosine, in which a single fatty acid is covalently bound to sphingosine via an amide linkage. Various ester-linked substituents can result in generation of ceramides, sphingomyelins and glycosphingolipids.
  NCI Thesaurus
  U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
• Family of ceramides with various hydrophilic, O-linked head groups; found in membranes, especially in neural tissue.
  CRISP Thesaurus
  National Institutes of Health, 2006
• A class of membrane lipids that have a polar head and two nonpolar tails. They are composed of one molecule of the long-chain amino alcohol sphingosine (4-sphingenine) or one of its derivatives, one molecule of a long-chain acid, a polar head alcohol and sometimes phosphoric acid in diester linkage at the polar head group. (Lehninger et al, Principles of Biochemistry, 2nd ed)
  NLM Medical Subject Headings
  U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2021
• Sphingolipid, any member of a class of lipids (fat-soluble constituents of living cells) containing the organic aliphatic amino alcohol sphingosine or a substance structurally similar to it. Among the most simple sphingolipids are the ceramides (sphingosine plus a fatty acid), widely distributed...
  Encyclopedia Britannica
  Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2020