organic chemistry
5
3.7
- noun
- /ɔrˈɡænɪk ˈkɛmɪstri/
- Specialized
:
química orgánica
- So these amines turn out to be very important not only in organic chemistry, but also in biology.
Then I enrolled in school to go learn organic chemistry, biochemistry, nutritional biochemistry.
- Then I enrolled in school to go learn organic chemistry, biochemistry, nutritional biochemistry.
- But I could not get past organic chemistry.
- But if you could do mode specific chemistry, you could make things that aren't makeable by ordinary organic chemistry.
Examples
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The biology of living organisms depends on organic chemistry, which in turn is based on the element carbon.
Academic text (2004) -
Advances in organic chemistry over the past two centuries have dramatically increased the materials available to artists.
Academic text (2009) -
A friend's coming over to do organic chemistry with me.
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You know, you make fun of me, but I had to pass organic chemistry to get in.
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Yeah, it's so much fun studying organic chemistry.
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- Have you studied organic chemistry?
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They were upset that organic chemistry was too hard.
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Joyce is studying organic chemistry now.
Fiction book (1994) -
No other topic gives you as good a basic feel for structure, function, and reactivity in organic chemistry.
Blog text (7) -
Many students find organic chemistry challenging due to its complex reactions.
Antonyms
- Specialized
1
4.2
The study of materials like metals and salts not based on carbon
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'organic' (relating to carbon-containing compounds) plus 'chemistry' (the study of matter) yields the discipline that studies carbon-containing compounds. This compound is cross-linguistically regular (e.g., Spanish 'química orgánica') and any minor other sense of 'organic' (e.g., 'natural') is disambiguated by the noun 'chemistry', so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it.
Etymology
Organic chemistry comes from when scientists long ago studied substances from 'living things' like plants and animals. They called those substances organic ('from life'), and because many of them contain carbon, organic chemistry today means the study of carbon compounds.