Word.ws English Dictionary

dimethyl sulfoxide

dimethyl sulfoxide noun: an organic compound, (CH₃)₂SO, obtained as a byproduct from wood pulp, and is used as a solvent for carrying out chemical reactions and for administering drugs through the skin; also used as a reagent; its polar structure is a resonance hybrid.

Noun

dimethyl sulfoxide (uncountable, abbreviation DMSO)

  1. An organic compound, (CH₃)₂SO, obtained as a byproduct from wood pulp, and is used as a solvent for carrying out chemical reactions and for administering drugs through the skin; also used as a reagent; its polar structure is a resonance hybrid.

Forms of dimethyl sulfoxide

abbreviationDMSO
alternative formdimethyl sulphoxide

Questions about dimethyl sulfoxide

What does dimethyl sulfoxide mean?
Dimethyl sulfoxide means an organic compound, (CH₃)₂SO, obtained as a byproduct from wood pulp, and is used as a solvent for carrying out chemical reactions and for administering drugs through the skin; also used as a reagent; its polar structure is a resonance hybrid.
What part of speech is dimethyl sulfoxide?
Dimethyl sulfoxide is a noun.

Words near dimethyl sulfoxide in the dictionary

  1. dimethyl selenide
  2. dimethyl sulfate
  3. dimethyl sulfide
  4. dimethyl sulfone
  5. dimethyl sulfones
  6. dimethyl sulfoxide
  7. dimethyl sulphoxide
  8. dimethyl telluride
  9. dimethyl terephthalate
  10. dimethylacetal
  11. dimethylacetals

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dimethyl sulfoxide (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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