Definition of "tricarboxylic" [tricarboxylic]

• Having three carboxyl groups. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The cycle is therefore also called the tricarboxylic acid cycle."
• "It also has a complete tricarboxylic acid cycle, and can thus metabolize citrate internally during aerobic growth on other substrates (39)."
• "What evolved here was not the tricarboxylic acid cycle that metabolizes citrate, but simply the means to utilize it via (most likely) an also pre-existing transport system."