Word.ws English Dictionary

cetyl

cetyl noun: the univalent hexadecyl radical C₁₆H₃₃- present in many waxes.

Noun

cetyl (plural cetyls)

  1. The univalent hexadecyl radical C₁₆H₃₃- present in many waxes.
    • Other detergents are available, including alternative ionic forms (such as the cetyls) for cleaving nucleic acid-protein bonds.1997, David M. Hawcroft, The Basics: Electrophoresis, IRL Press, Oxford University Press, page 30

Forms of cetyl

pluralcetyls

Origin of cetyl

From Latin cētus (“whale”) + English -yl.

Words formed from cetyl

Questions about cetyl

What does cetyl mean?
Cetyl means the univalent hexadecyl radical C₁₆H₃₃- present in many waxes.
What part of speech is cetyl?
Cetyl is a noun.
What is the plural of cetyl?
The plural of cetyl is cetyls.

Words near cetyl in the dictionary

  1. cettid warbler
  2. cettid warblers
  3. cettiid
  4. Cetus
  5. cetuximab
  6. cetyl
  7. cetyl alcohol
  8. cetylic
  9. cetylpyridinium
  10. cetylpyridinium chloride
  11. cetyls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cetyl (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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