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ethyl group

ethyl group

6.1
A small part of a molecule made of two carbon atoms and five hydrogen atoms
  • noun
  • /ˈɛθəl ɡruːp/
  • Specialized
translation icon : grupo etilo
  • The ethyl group C2H5 is commonly found in various organic compounds such as ethanol.

Examples

  • And so you notice if you just replace this with say an ethyl group, OK, so you make ethanol.

  • What about our ethyl group here or ethylene group, Methylene group, we have our two protons.

  • In this experiment, we used an ethyl group C2H5 to investigate its effects on the reaction rate.

  • The chemist explained how the ethyl group C2H5 is derived from ethane by removing one hydrogen atom.

Synonyms

ethyl
vsethyl group
  • Specialized
5 7.7

A group of atoms in a molecule made of two carbon atoms and five hydrogen atoms

is identical in meaning but written with an added noun to stress the unit

How Big

phenyl
  • Specialized
1 8.6
butyl
  • Specialized
1 8.2
propyl group
  • Specialized
6.7
ethyl group
  • Specialized
6.1
methyl group
  • Specialized
1 5.3

Surface Forms

ethyl group singular
ethyl groups plural

Morphology

ethyl + group

The compound is fully compositional: 'ethyl' names a specific C2H5 substituent and 'group' denotes a bonded assembly, so 'ethyl group' straightforwardly means the ethyl substituent or assembly of atoms. This is a standard chemical noun–noun composition found across languages, so a B1 learner who already knows both constituents would understand the MWE.

Etymology

Ethyl group names a small part of a molecule: ethyl is a 'two-carbon piece' and group means several atoms joined together. When an ethyl group is joined to a molecule, it often changes how the whole molecule behaves, so the name points to the part that makes a compound different.