any of a class of organic acids containing the carboxyl group
See also fatty acid
carboxylic acid in American English
noun
Chemistry
any organic acid containing one or more carboxyl groups
Word origin
[1900–05; carboxyl + -ic]This word is first recorded in the period 1900–05. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: burnout, cathode-ray tube, decompression, hormone, internship-ic is a suffix forming adjectives from other parts of speech, occurring originally inGreek and Latin loanwords (metallic; poetic; archaic; public) and, on this model, used as an adjective-forming suffix with the particular senses“having some characteristics of” (opposed to the simple attributive use of the basenoun) (balletic; sophomoric); “in the style of” (Byronic; Miltonic); “pertaining to a family of peoples or languages” (Finnic; Semitic; Turkic)
Examples of 'carboxylic acid' in a sentence
carboxylic acid
Which weak acid is the second simplest carboxylic acid, after formic acid?
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
Many allergy sufferers use gloves made from nitrile, a synthetic polymer of butadiene, acrylonitrile, and carboxylic acid.