Formaldehyde

//fɔː(ɹ)ˈmældɪhaɪd// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The simplest aldehyde, HCHO, a colourless gas that has many industrial applications; it dissolves in water to give formol (10%) and formalin. countable, uncountable

    "The shark chosen to replace the original was injected with 224 gallons of formaldehyde, ten times the amount used on the first shark and in a stronger concentration."

  2. 2
    a colorless poisonous gas; made by the oxidation of methanol wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
methanalalcoholammoniacarbon dioxidechemicaldisinfectant

Example

More examples

"Elsila and her team will look for the molecules, such as formaldehyde or hydrogen cyanide, that form amino acids to shed light on the primordial chemistry of the solar system."

Etymology

From form(yl) + aldehyde.

Related phrases

phenol formaldehyde resinurea-formaldehydebad odorformic acidmedical preservativepreserving chemicalpreserving fluid

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