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phenyl.

A univalent hydrocarbon radical, C₆H₅ (benzene minus one hydrogen atom), and the basis of an immense number of aromatic derivatives.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfiː.naɪl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɛn.l̩/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɛn.l̩/General-American/ˈfi.nl̩/General-American
  1. A univalent hydrocarbon radical, C₆H₅ (benzene minus one hydrogen atom), and the basis of an immense number of aromatic derivatives.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂nyéti Proto-Hellenic *pʰáňňō Ancient Greek φαίνω (phaínō)der. French phéno- Proto-Indo-European *swel-der.? Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē)der. French -yle French phénylebor. English phenyl Borrowed from French phényle, derived from the root of Ancient Greek φαίνω (phaínō, “to shine”) plus ὕλη (húlē, “wood; material, substance”). Equivalent to phen- + -yl.

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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.