Acetaldehyde

//ˌæs.ɪˈtæl.dəˌhaɪd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A colourless organic compound, CH₃CHO, occurring widely in nature and being produced on a large scale in industry. countable, uncountable

    "When you have a drink, your body turns the ethanol that’s present in the alcoholic beverage into a “really nasty substance” called acetaldehyde, which can damage your DNA, said Timothy Stockwell, an alcohol researcher at the University of Victoria in Canada."

  2. 2
    a colorless volatile water-soluble liquid aldehyde used chiefly in the manufacture of acetic acid and perfumes and drugs wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
ethanalacetic aldehyde

Example

More examples

"When you have a drink, your body turns the ethanol that’s present in the alcoholic beverage into a “really nasty substance” called acetaldehyde, which can damage your DNA, said Timothy Stockwell, an alcohol researcher at the University of Victoria in Canada."

Etymology

From acet- + aldehyde.

Related phrases

acetic aldehydeorganic compound

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.