Word.ws English Dictionary

mercapto-

/məɹˈkæptoː/

mercapto- prefix: an organosulfur compound that contains a carbon-bonded sulfhydryl or sulphydryl.

Prefix

mercapto-

  1. an organosulfur compound that contains a carbon-bonded sulfhydryl or sulphydryl
    Synonyms:
    thiol

Synonyms of mercapto-

Origin of mercapto-

The term mercaptan was introduced in 1832 by the Danish chemist William Christopher Zeise and is derived from the Latin mercurium captāns (capturing mercury) because the thiolate group bonds very strongly with mercury compounds.

Questions about mercapto-

What does mercapto- mean?
Mercapto- means an organosulfur compound that contains a carbon-bonded sulfhydryl or sulphydryl.
What part of speech is mercapto-?
Mercapto- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce mercapto-?
Mercapto- is pronounced /məɹˈkæptoː/.

Words near mercapto- in the dictionary

  1. mercaptide
  2. mercaptides
  3. mercapto
  4. mercapto protease
  5. mercapto proteases
  6. mercapto-
  7. mercaptoacetamide
  8. mercaptoacetate
  9. mercaptoacetates
  10. mercaptoacetic acid
  11. mercaptoacetyltriglycine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mercapto- (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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