Other forms: chemicals
A chemical is a pure material made or studied in laboratories. Industrial chemicals, a chemical reaction, chemical spill.
As a marketing word it is nonsense — everything is made of chemicals, water included — and chemical-free is a claim about nothing. As a technical word it is precise: a chemical is a substance of definite composition. Note that the word goes back through alchemy, which is where the science came from.
1nounchemicalA pure material made or studied in laboratories.
“Wear gloves when you use these cleaning chemicals, because they can burn your skin.”
chemical is a substance.
Also accepted in games: substance
From New Latin chemicus, from alchemy, which came through Arabic from a Greek word. Alchemy and chemistry are the same word.
From chēmicus + -al. From NL.:chēmicus + -al.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA