The word hydrolysis comes from two Greek words: hydro - water lysis - to unbind
So, hydrolysis is a reaction of breaking apart (unbinding) large molecules using water. For example, sucrose or table sugar is disaccharide made of two monosaccharides: fructose and glucose. Hydrolysis of sucrose means that water molecule break apart sucrose, i.e. unbind fructose and glucose.
