The ensemble of all phenolics for which the biosynthesis is coregulated with lignin biosynthesis, i.e., metabolites from the general phenylpropanoid, monolignol, and (neo)-lignan biosynthetic pathways and their derivatives, as well as the lignin oligomers, is coined the lignome. In lignifying tissues, the lignome comprises a significant portion of the metabolome. However, as is true for metabolomics in general, the structural elucidation of unknowns represents the biggest challenge in characterizing the lignome. To minimize the necessity to purify unknowns for NMR analysis, it would be desirable to be able to extract structural information from liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry data directly. However, mass spectral libraries for metabolomics are scarce, and no libraries exist for the lignome. Therefore, elucidating the gas-phase fragmentation behavior of the major bonding types encountered in lignome-associated molecules would considerably advance the systematic characterization of the lignome. By comparative MS n analysis of a series of molecules belonging to the -aryl ether, benzodioxane, phenylcoumaran, and resinol groups, we succeeded in annotating typical fragmentations for each of these bonding structures as well as fragmentations that enabled the identification of the aromatic units involved in each bonding structure. Consequently, this work lays the foundation for a detailed characterization of the lignome in different plant species, mutants, and transgenics and for the MS-based sequencing of lignin oligomers and (neo)lignans.Lignin is an aromatic heteropolymer that is mainly present in secondary-thickened plant cell walls where it provides the necessary strength and hydrophobicity for plants to grow in an upward direction and to enable the transport of water, nutrients, and photoassimilates. Lignin is mainly composed of p-hydroxyphenyl (H), guaiacyl (G), and syringyl (S) units derived from the combinatorial coupling of p-coumaryl, coniferyl, and sinapyl alcohols ( Figure 1A), 1 the so-called monolignols that are produced by the general phenylpropanoid and monolignol biosynthetic pathways. [2][3][4][5] Following oxidation by peroxidase and/or laccase, the resulting electron-delocalized monolignol radical has unpaired electron density at its 1-, 3-, O-4-, 5-, and 8-positions ( Figure 1B). As radical coupling at the 8-position is favored, coupling with another monolignol radical results in, after rearomatization, a mixture of dehydrodimers with 8-8′, 8-5′, and 8-O-4′ linkages ( Figure 1C).In addition to these major monomers, several other monomers have been identified in particular species or in plants with modified lignin biosynthesis, 1,3 such as 5-hydroxyconiferyl alcohol in caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) downregulated transgenic plants, 6,7 dihydroconiferyl alcohol in cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) deficient loblolly pine, 8 acylated monolignols, such as sinapyl p-hydroxybenzoate in poplar, 9 and hydroxycinnamic acid or hydroxycinnamate esters, such as feruloyl tyramine in tobacco....