Meaning & use
ethyl ether
A highly flammable, sweet-smelling liquid compound once widely used as a surgical anesthetic and industrial solvent.
See it in a sentence
Ethyl ether was one of the first substances used to put patients to sleep during surgery.
The lab stored the ethyl ether carefully because of its extreme flammability.
A note on using this word
Ethyl ether has largely been replaced in modern medicine by safer anesthetics, but it's still used as a solvent in some industrial and laboratory settings.
Words with a similar meaning
diethyl ether
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