Which term describes a large molecule built from repeating monomer units?

Which term describes a large molecule built from repeating monomer units?

• A. Monomer
• B. Polymer
• C. Lipid
• D. Nucleic acid

Answer: (B)

A polymer is a large molecule formed by linking many repeating monomer units. Each monomer is a single, simple molecule, and when many of these join together in a chain, they create a polymer. This concept explains why proteins (made from amino acids), starch (made from glucose), and DNA (made from nucleotides) are all polymers. Lipids aren’t built from repeating monomer units in the same way, and a nucleic acid is just a specific example of a polymer. So the term that best describes the whole class of such large molecules is polymer.

A polymer is a large molecule formed by linking many repeating monomer units. Each monomer is a single, simple molecule, and when many of these join together in a chain, they create a polymer. This concept explains why proteins (made from amino acids), starch (made from glucose), and DNA (made from nucleotides) are all polymers. Lipids aren’t built from repeating monomer units in the same way, and a nucleic acid is just a specific example of a polymer. So the term that best describes the whole class of such large molecules is polymer.