ethyl ether

Meaning

1. 1noununcountable

   A clear, sweet-smelling, very flammable liquid made from ethanol, used as a laboratory solvent and formerly to put patients to sleep during surgery.

   Grammar: Used without 'a': the lab stores ethyl ether in a cool cabinet.

   Patterns

   • dissolve something in ethyl ether
   • extract something with ethyl ether

   Ethyl ether evaporates quickly, so it must be stored in a sealed container.

   Nineteenth-century surgeons sometimes used ethyl ether to put patients to sleep.

   The chemist dissolved the oil in ethyl ether before the next step.

Common combinations

ethyl ether vapor

Ethyl ether vapor is heavier than air and can travel along the floor.

extract with ethyl ether

Students extracted the pigment with ethyl ether.

dissolve in ethyl ether

The wax dissolves in ethyl ether.

highly flammable

Ethyl ether is highly flammable and must be kept away from sparks.

Synonyms and how they differ

diethyl ether

Diethyl ether is the full chemical name and is preferred in scientific writing, while ethyl ether is a common shorter form.

ether

Ether alone is the everyday short name, but it can also refer to the wider chemical group, so ethyl ether is more precise.

sulfuric ether

Sulfuric ether is an old name that comes from how the substance used to be made, and it is rarely used now.

Word family

ether noun

the general chemical group, or this liquid

ethyl adjective

relating to a group of carbon and hydrogen atoms derived from ethane

ethanol noun

the type of alcohol found in drinks, used to make ethyl ether

etherize verb

to treat or anesthetize with ether

Commonly confused: ethyl ether or ethyl alcohol?

Practice

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Write a sentence using “ethyl ether”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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