Standard Lemma guide

acetaldehyde

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: /ˌæs.ɪˈtæl.dəˌhaɪd/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, organic-chemistry, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: acetic aldehyde, ethanal

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: ethanal

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: aldehyde

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h2eḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-éh1ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh1yeti Proto-Indo-European *h2eḱéh1yeti Proto-Italic *akēō Latin aceō Latin acētumder. English aceto- English acet- Akkadian 𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)bor. Aramaic כוחלא (kuḥlā)bor. Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl) Andalusian Arabic اَلْكُحُول (al-kuḥūl)bor. Latin alcoholder. Proto-Indo-European *de Proto-Indo-European *-h1 Proto-Indo-European *déh1 Proto-Italic *dē Latin dē Latin de-der. Proto-Indo-European *wed- Proto-Indo-European *-r̥ Proto-Indo-European *wódr̥ Proto-Hellenic *údōr Ancient Greek ῡ̆̔́δωρ (hū̆́dōr) Ancient Greek ῠ̔δρο- (hŭdro-)der. German Aldehydbor. English aldehyde English acetaldehyde From acet- + aldehyde.

Across languages

Translations

27 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: acetaldehid — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Chinese Cantonese: 乙醛 (jyut3 cyun4) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Chinese Cantonese: 醋醛 (cou3 cyun4) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Chinese Mandarin: 乙醛 (yǐquán) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Chinese Mandarin: 醋醛 (cùquán) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Czech: acetaldehyd — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Esperanto: acetaldehido — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Finnish: asetaldehydi — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • French: acétaldéhyde — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • French: éthanal — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • German: Acetaldehyd — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Greek: ακεταλδεΰδη (aketaldeÿ́di) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Hungarian: acetaldehid — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Irish: aicéataildéad — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Italian: acetaldeide — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Japanese: アセトアルデヒド — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Kazakh: ацетальдегид (asetaldegid) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Kyrgyz: ацетальдегид (atsetaldegid) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Persian: استالدهید (asetâldehid) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Polish: acetaldehyd — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Polish: aldehyd octowy — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Portuguese: acetaldeído — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Portuguese: etanal — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Spanish: acetaldehído — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Swedish: etanal — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Ukrainian: етана́ль (etanálʹ) — the organic compound CH3CHO
  • Ukrainian: о́цтовий альдегі́д (óctovyj alʹdehíd) — the organic compound CH3CHO
Real reading context

acetaldehyde in complete knowledge articles