alkane.
Any acyclic saturated hydrocarbon (methane, ethane, etc.).
Meaning & usage
Any acyclic saturated hydrocarbon (methane, ethane, etc.).
The carbon chain of an alkane may be linear or branched, but must not contain loops (cycles); its chemical formula is of the form CₙH₂ₙ₊₂.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Akkadian 𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)bor. Aramaic כוחלא (kuḥlā)bor. Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl) Andalusian Arabic كُحُول (kuḥūl)bor. Medieval Latin alcoholbor. German Alk(ohol) Proto-Indo-European *swel-der.? Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē)der. German -yl German Alkyl German alk- Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Proto-Italic *-ānos Latin -ānusder. German -an German Alkanbor. English alkane From German Alkan, formed as alkyl + -ane.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.