Standard Lemma guide

aldehyde

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

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  • /ˈæl.dɪ.haɪd/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 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.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: organic compound

Narrower terms: paraldehyde, ethanal trimer, acetaldehyde, ethanal, formaldehyde, methanal, furfural, furfuraldehyde, glyceraldehyde, glyceric aldehyde, propanal, propionaldehyde, propenal, acrolein

History

Etymology

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

Across languages

Translations

34 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: aldehid — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Chinese Cantonese: 醛 (cyun4) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Chinese Mandarin: 醛 (quán) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Czech: aldehyd — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Danish: aldehyd — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Dutch: aldehyde — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Esperanto: aldehido — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Estonian: aldehüüd — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Finnish: aldehydi — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • French: aldéhyde — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • German: Aldehyd — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Greek: αλδεΰδη (aldeÿ́di) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Hungarian: aldehid — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Indonesian: aldehida — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Indonesian: alkanal — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Irish: aildéad — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Italian: aldeide — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Japanese: アルデヒド (arudehido) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Kazakh: альдегид (aldegid) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Khmer: អាល់ដេអ៊ីត (ʼaldeeʼiit) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Korean: 알데하이드 (aldehaideu) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Korean: 알데히드 (aldehideu) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Māori: (w)hāparotahi — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Norwegian Bokmål: aldehyd — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: aldehyd — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Persian: آلدئید (âlde'id) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Persian: آلدهید (âldehid) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Polish: aldehyd — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Portuguese: aldeído — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Russian: альдеги́д (alʹdegíd) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Spanish: aldehído — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Swedish: aldehyd — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Ukrainian: альдегі́д (alʹdehíd) — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
  • Vietnamese: anđêhit — organic compound of the general formula R·CHO
Real reading context

aldehyde in complete knowledge articles