inorganic

UK/ɪnɔːˈɡænɪk/US/ɪnɔɹˈɡænɪk/

adjectiveB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,500 of 15,258mostly written

Inorganic means not built around carbon. Inorganic chemistry, inorganic compounds, inorganic salts.

The line is a convention rather than a law of nature, and a few carbon compounds are counted as inorganic anyway — carbon dioxide and carbonates among them. Outside chemistry, inorganic growth means growth bought by acquisition rather than earned.

Definitions of inorganic

1adjectiveinorganicNot built around carbon.B2+
“Inorganic fertilisers are made in factories from minerals rather than from animal manure.”

inorganic is a chemical category.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*werǵ-
Latin
organicus
Old French
organique
Middle English
organic
English
organic
English, today
inorganic

From in- + organic. organic comes from Middle English organic, organik, from Old French organique, from Latin organicus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Chemistry & Elements

Practise this word

inorganic in the wild

The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as inorganic chemistry.
Inorganic compound
Many of these are normal parts of mostly organic systems, including organisms; describing a chemical as inorganic does not necessarily mean that it cannot occur within living things.
Inorganic compound
Many biological processes such as respiration depend upon molecules that fall within the realm of inorganic chemistry.
Bioinorganic chemistry
A mineral acid (or inorganic acid) is an acid derived from one or more inorganic compounds, as opposed to organic acids which are acidic, organic compounds.
Mineral acid
Seleninyl chloride is the inorganic compound with the formula SeOCl2.
Seleninyl chloride

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the organique family

organic

inorganic — used about once every 23,598 pages · #13,500 · point at the bar for the others

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