noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any of a large class of reactive organic compounds (R·CHO) having a carbonyl functional group attached to one hydrocarbon radical and a hydrogen atom.

   "The air smells of strange, oceanic aldehydes."

2. 2
   any of a class of highly reactive chemical compounds; used in making resins and dyes and organic acids wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

alcoholchemicalformylium

Example

More examples

"If you oxidise an alcohol you get an aldehyde but what do you get if you oxidise an aldehyde?"

Etymology

Borrowed from German Aldehyd, a contraction of the Latin al(cohol) dehyd(rogenātum).

Related phrases

Zincke aldehydeacetic aldehydealdehyde oxidasealdehydic acidamino aldehydeconiferyl aldehydemelon aldehydestrawberry aldehydefunctional group

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