What does "mercaptan" mean?

Any of a class of organic compounds of sulphur, ( R-SH ) where R represents an alkyl or other organic substituent. They tend to be foul-smelling. They are also termed thiols or thioalcohols.

What is a synonym for "mercaptan"?

Common synonyms include: organosulfide, thiol, thiol.

How do you pronounce "mercaptan"?

Pronounced //mɚˈkæpt(ə)n//.

Mercaptan

//mɚˈkæpt(ə)n// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any of a class of organic compounds of sulphur, ( R-SH ) where R represents an alkyl or other organic substituent. They tend to be foul-smelling. They are also termed thiols or thioalcohols.
"Though this might come as a surprise, gas actually has no odor; gas companies are obligated to odorize it to make it safer for use in homes. Mercaptan, a harmless chemical, is added to create the distinct smell in both natural gas (methane) and liquid petroleum gas (propane, butane)."

Synonyms

All synonyms

organosulfide thiol thiol

Example

More examples

"Though this might come as a surprise, gas actually has no odor; gas companies are obligated to odorize it to make it safer for use in homes. Mercaptan, a harmless chemical, is added to create the distinct smell in both natural gas (methane) and liquid petroleum gas (propane, butane)."

Etymology

Borrowed from German Mercaptan, from Danish mercaptan; coined by organic chemist William Christopher Zeise in 1832 from mer(curius) (“mercury”) + captan(s) (“capturing”), because the thiolate group bonds very strongly with mercury compounds.

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