Word.ws English Dictionary

cellosolve

cellosolve noun: a glycol ether.

Noun (1)

cellosolve (plural cellosolves)

  1. A glycol ether
    • Cellosolves are used as solvents for lacquers, for sealing cellophane wrapping, and in hydraulic-brake fluid.1960, Francis E. Condon, Herbert Meislich, Introduction to Organic Chemistry, page 274
  2. Specifically ethylene glycol monoethyl ether
    • Start with a 50 per cent mixture of cellosolve and water; then go directly to pure cellosolve.1950, Robert Matheson, Medical Entomology, →ISBN, page 598

Noun (2) capitalized: Cellosolve

Cellosolve (plural Cellosolves)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of cellosolve.

Forms of cellosolve

pluralcellosolves
pluralCellosolves

Origin of cellosolve

From the brand name "Cellosolve", used by Union Carbide since 1924 to market ethyl and methyl cellosolves as solvents for cellulose esters such as nitrocellulose. Blend of cellulose + dissolve

Questions about cellosolve

What does cellosolve mean?
Cellosolve means a glycol ether.
What part of speech is cellosolve?
Cellosolve is a noun.
What is the plural of cellosolve?
The plural of cellosolve is cellosolves.

Words near cellosolve in the dictionary

  1. cellophaned
  2. cellophanes
  3. cellophaning
  4. cellos
  5. cellose
  6. cellosolve
  7. cellosolves
  8. cellostrophanthoside
  9. cellosyl
  10. cellotaph
  11. cellotaphs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cellosolve (page history and authors); Cellosolve (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cellosolve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cellosolve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.