Chloral

//ˈklɔːɹæl// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A colourless narcotic liquid, trichloroacetaldehyde, CCl₃CHO, obtained at first by the action of chlorine on alcohol and that, when treated with water, produces chloral hydrate. uncountable, usually

    "‘They say there is a skeleton in every cupboard,’ Rossetti said quietly, ‘and that's mine; it's chloral.’ Caine was shocked but forbore to comment."

Synonyms

All synonyms
chloralium

Example

More examples

"‘They say there is a skeleton in every cupboard,’ Rossetti said quietly, ‘and that's mine; it's chloral.’ Caine was shocked but forbore to comment."

Etymology

Blend of chlorine + alcohol.

Related phrases

chloral hydratechloral hydrate

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