Phrase guide

organic compound

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.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any compound containing carbon atoms covalently bound to other atoms.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

Examples

  • Meteorites contain a wide range of organic compounds.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

any compound of carbon and another element or a radical

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: compound, chemical compound

Narrower terms: aldehyde, aliphatic compound, alkylbenzene, alkyl halide, haloalkane, amino acid, aminoalkanoic acid, diamine, enol, halon, peptone, quaternary ammonium compound, proenzyme, zymogen, propylthiouracil, ether, acetal, aldol, aldehyde-alcohol, alkaloid, amide, rennet, azadirachtin, thiazine, cacodyl, tetramethyldiarsine, neurochemical, acyl anhydrides, acid anhydrides, acyl halide, acid halide, creosote, coal-tar creosote, nitrile, nitril, cyanide, cyanohydrin, ester, furan, furane, furfuran, glycoside, resin, rosin, halocarbon, hemiacetal, hemolysin, haemolysin, erythrolysin, erythrocytolysin, humic substance, hydrocarbon, ketone, macromolecule, supermolecule, nitrobenzene, oxime, petrochemical, phosphocreatine, creatine phosphate, creatine phosphoric acid, phenol, pyrimidine, quassia, steroid, nonsteroid, nonsteroidal, thiouracil, urea, carbamide, imide, xanthine

History

Etymology

Not only are organic compounds essential to living organisms, but the common belief until the 19th century was that only living organisms could produce them, whence the name. When it was shown in the early 1800s that they could also be produced in the laboratory, the old name was kept.

Across languages

Translations

29 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Cantonese: 有機化合物 /有机化合物 (jau5 gei1 faa3 hap6 mat6) — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Chinese Mandarin: 有機化合物 /有机化合物 (yǒujī huàhéwù) — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Czech: organická sloučenina — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Danish: organisk forbindelse — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Dutch: organische verbinding — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Finnish: orgaaninen yhdiste — carbon containing covalent compound
  • French: composé organique — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Galician: composto orgánico — carbon containing covalent compound
  • German: organische Verbindung — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Greek: οργανική ένωση (organikí énosi) — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Hungarian: szerves vegyület — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Icelandic: lífrænt efnasamband — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Irish: comhdhúil orgánach — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Italian: composto organico — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Japanese: 有機化合物 (yūki kagōbutsu) — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Malay: sebatian organik — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Malayalam: കാർബണിക സംയുക്തം (kāṟbaṇika saṁyuktaṁ) — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Manx: co-vunstoo orgaanagh — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Māori: matūwaro — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Polish: związek organiczny — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Portuguese: composto orgânico — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Romanian: compus organic — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Russian: органи́ческое соедине́ние (organíčeskoje sojedinénije) — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Russian: органи́ческое вещество́ (organíčeskoje veščestvó) — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Spanish: compuesto orgánico — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Swedish: organisk förening — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Tagalog: haying balangkap — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Turkish: organik bileşik — carbon containing covalent compound
  • Welsh: cyfansoddyn organig — carbon containing covalent compound