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Glyceraldehyde, also known as gliceraldeído in Portuguese, is the simplest aldose and a triose sugar with the molecular formula C3H6O3. In its straight-chain form, it contains an aldehyde group at carbon 1 (CHO), a hydroxyl-bearing carbon at carbon 2 (CHOH), and a terminal hydroxyl on carbon 3 (CH2OH), giving the structure CHO-CHOH-CH2OH.

Glyceraldehyde exists as two enantiomers: D-glyceraldehyde and L-glyceraldehyde. In Fischer projections, the difference lies in the arrangement of the hydroxyl group at C2. D-glyceraldehyde has the hydroxyl on the right, while L-glyceraldehyde has it on the left. The D form is dextrorotatory, rotating plane-polarized light to the right, though the D/L designation is a relative stereochemical convention rather than a direct prediction of optical rotation for every compound.

In biology and biochemistry, glyceraldehyde itself is not a major free metabolite in most pathways, but its phosphorylated derivative glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate is a key intermediate in glycolysis and related metabolic routes. Historically, glyceraldehyde played an important role in carbohydrate chemistry as a reference compound for the D/L nomenclature used to describe stereochemistry, a convention developed in the late 19th century based on its enantiomers.

Reactions of glyceraldehyde reflect typical aldehyde chemistry: it can undergo oxidation to dihydroxyacetone or reduction to glycerol. It can be formed or interconverted in various carbohydrate transformations and serves as a foundational example in studies of stereochemistry and sugar chemistry.