the intoxicating agent in fermented and distilled liquors; used pure or denatured as a solvent or in medicines and colognes and cleaning solutions and rocket fuel; proposed as a renewable clean-burning additive to gasoline
"Ethanol serves as both the intoxicating component in alcoholic beverages and a versatile, renewable additive blended into gasoline."
A simple aliphatic alcohol formally derived from ethane by replacing one hydrogen atom with a hydroxyl group: CH₃-CH₂-OH.
"Ethanol is the primary component of alcoholic beverages and can be synthesized industrially by fermenting sugars or dehydrating ethene."
In plain English: Ethanol is a type of alcohol found in drinks and used as fuel for cars.
"The drink contained high levels of ethanol, which gave it an intoxicating effect."
Usage: Ethanol is the specific type of drinking alcohol found in beverages and used as fuel, distinct from other industrial or toxic alcohols like methanol. It refers strictly to this chemical compound rather than any generic liquid with a similar taste.
The word ethanol comes from the combination of "ethyl" and "alcohol," where ethyl traces its roots to the Ancient Greek word for ether. Although it can technically be broken down into parts meaning ethane plus a suffix, its name was formed by merging these existing chemical terms rather than describing a new concept.