phospholipid, also called Phosphatide, any member of a large class of fatlike, phosphorus-containing substances that play important structural and metabolic roles in living cells. The phospholipids, with the sphingolipids, the glycolipids, and the lipoproteins, are called complex lipids, as distinguished from the simple lipids (fats and waxes) and from other fat-soluble cell components, mostly isoprenoids and steroids. The term phosphoglyceride is used by some as a synonym for phospholipid...