DictionaryAI

alcohol

noun
AL-kuh-hawl/ˈæl.kə.hɔl/AL-kuh-hol/ˈæl.kə.hɒl/

Pluralalcohols (some meanings)

4 meanings of alcohol

Practice

  1. 1
    drinksnoununcountable
    Beverages containing ethanol, taken together as a category: beer, wine, and distilled spirits.

    The reception was dry, with no alcohol served at all.

    Many countries restrict the sale of alcohol to adults.

    UsageTakes no a and no plural here: drink alcohol, no alcohol served. For one serving, say a drink.

    Similarliquor, drink

  2. 2
    nouncountable or uncountable
    Ethanol: the intoxicating compound found in alcoholic beverages, also widely used as a solvent and disinfectant.

    The lab stored alcohol in sealed containers away from any heat source.

    Some thermometers use colored alcohol instead of mercury.

    UsageWhere precision matters, chemists say ethanol; in clinical and everyday use, alcohol is the normal word.

    Similarethanol

    Note

    Medicine and pharmacology use the bare word for one compound, ethanol (C₂H₅OH), with no qualifier needed. The broader chemical sense appears in alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme in the stomach and liver that breaks ethanol down.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  3. 3
    compound classnouncountable
    Any of a class of organic compounds containing a hydroxyl functional group (-OH) bonded to a saturated carbon atom; examples include ethanol and methanol.

    Ethanol is the alcohol most familiar to people, but the chemical family is large.

    Chemists classify each alcohol by the position of its hydroxyl group.

    Note

    The -OH group must sit on a saturated carbon, and alcohols are sorted as primary, secondary or tertiary by how many other carbons that carbon carries.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • An alcohol's -OH group is attached to a saturated carbon atom. chemed.chem.purdue.edu
    • Primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols are distinguished by the number of carbon groups attached to the carbon bearing -OH. openstax.org

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable
    A very fine powder, such as one produced by grinding or subliming a substance into minute particles.
    Note

    The sense closest to the word's origin: Arabic al-kuḥl, kohl, the finely powdered antimony sulfide worn around the eyes, reached English through the medical and alchemical Latin of the Middle Ages. In that tradition it named any powder refined to extreme fineness, often by sublimation. Only later did the word shift to distilled spirits.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The powder sense is closest to the Arabic origin, referring to powdered antimony sulfide used around the eyes. gutenberg.org
    • The word reached English through medieval medical and alchemical Latin. en.wiktionary.org
    • The word broadened to refer to extremely fine powders generally. gutenberg.org
    • Such fine powders were produced by sublimation. gutenberg.org
    • The application to distilled spirits followed the powder meaning. gutenberg.org

Practice

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Origin

First attested in the 15th century, alcohol came through Middle English alcofol and Middle French or Spanish alcohol, from a Medieval Latin form used in medical and alchemical writing, which itself came from Arabic al-kuḥl ('kohl'). It first meant stibnite, then broadened to any powder made by grinding a material, then to liquids obtained by distillation, before being specialized to mean spirit of wine (ethanol) in the 18th century and extended to its wider chemical sense after 1850. It is a doublet of alcool and kohl.

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 9 facts

  • English alcohol is attested in the fifteenth century as Middle English alcofol, through Middle French or Spanish. en.wiktionary.org
  • The intermediate Medieval Latin form occurred in medical and alchemical writing. en.wikipedia.org
  • The Medieval Latin word derives from Arabic al-kuḥl, meaning kohl. en.wiktionary.org
  • The original referent was stibnite, or antimony sulfide. gutenberg.org
  • The meaning broadened to powders made by grinding other materials. en.wikipedia.org
  • The extension was to liquids obtained by distillation, which involves collecting condensed vapor, rather than boiling a liquid down. en.wikipedia.org
  • The meaning became specialized to spirit of wine, or ethanol, in the eighteenth century. en.wikipedia.org
  • The word was extended to a wider class of chemical substances, rather than narrowed. en.wikipedia.org
  • Alcohol, alcool, and kohl are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org