acetaldehyde

From acet- + aldehyde.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæs.ɪˈtæl.dəˌhaɪd/

• Audio (Southern England):

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acetaldehyde (countable and uncountable, plural acetaldehydes)

2. (organic chemistry) A colourless organic compound, CH₃CHO, occurring widely in nature and being produced on a large scale in industry.

   Synonyms: acetic aldehyde, ethanal

   • 2025 May 20, Caroline Hopkins Legaspi, quoting Timothy Stockwell, “Is There a Least Bad Alcohol?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 May 2025:

     When you have a drink, your body turns the ethanol that’s present in the alcoholic beverage into a “really nasty substance” called acetaldehyde, which can damage your DNA, said Timothy Stockwell, an alcohol researcher at the University of Victoria in Canada.