organic chemistry

American  

noun

1. the branch of chemistry, originally limited to substances found only in living organisms, dealing with the compounds of carbon.

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organic chemistry British  

noun

1. the branch of chemistry concerned with the compounds of carbon: originally confined to compounds produced by living organisms but now extended to include man-made substances based on carbon, such as plastics Compare inorganic chemistry

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organic chemistry Scientific  

1. The branch of chemistry that deals with carbon and organic compounds, especially hydrocarbons.

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organic chemistry Cultural  

1. The branch of chemistry dealing with organic molecules (see also organic molecule).

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Etymology

Origin of organic chemistry

First recorded in 1870–75

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Compare meaning

How does organic-chemistry compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• organic chemistry vs. inorganic chemistry

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

organic chemistry

In organic chemistry, this property is known as "chirality", so chiral molecules have both right and left-handed forms.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Missions studying Mars, Europa, Enceladus, and other worlds are producing increasingly detailed measurements of organic chemistry.

From Science Daily ● May 12, 2026

“From a cost and scalability perspective, using organic chemistry is a lot more efficient than what we have to do creating autoinjectors, with peptides, etc.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

Garg’s 19-person lab works on developing new organic chemistry reactions that could have pharmaceutical applications.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2025

The elements were from my mother’s own version of organic chemistry.

From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan

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