alcohol

alcohol — noun

1. any drink — for example beer, wine, or whisky — that has a substance in it which

1.名詞A2
釋義

any drink — for example beer, wine, or whisky — that has a substance in it which can make you feel drunk if you have too much.

例句

Esme does not drink alcohol because he is the driver tonight.

verb pattern: drink alcohol

The new café in Tainan serves coffee and cake but no alcohol.

同義詞
  • liquor

    American English; often suggests stronger spirits like whisky or vodka

  • booze

    informal, conversational

  • drink

    very common in 'have a drink'; covers any alcoholic beverage

用法筆記

Almost always uncountable. The plural 'alcohols' belongs to the chemistry sense (see sense 3), not this drink sense.

常見錯誤

❌I bought two alcohols at the party.
✅I bought two drinks at the party.
💡for drinks sense, alcohol stays uncountable; count individual drinks instead.
❌She drinks an alcohol every night.
✅She drinks alcohol every night.' / 'She has a drink every night.
💡no article with this sense.

2. the clear, colourless liquid (chemically known as ethanol) that gives beer, wine

2.名詞B1
釋義

the clear, colourless liquid (chemically known as ethanol) that gives beer, wine, and spirits the power to make you drunk, and that is also added to fuels, cleaning products, hand sanitiser, and some medicines.

例句

The nurse rubbed alcohol on Tomás's arm before giving her the injection.

collocation: rub alcohol on something

Hand sanitiser kills germs because it contains about seventy percent alcohol.

pattern: contain X percent alcohol

同義詞
  • ethanol

    the precise scientific name for this single compound

  • spirit

    older term, still used in 'surgical spirit' for a cleaning solution

用法筆記

Distinguish from sense 1 by what the surrounding nouns describe: bottles, parties, and behaviour point to sense 1; concentrations, percentages, blood tests, and cleaning products point to sense 2.

常見錯誤

❌Please clean the wound with the alcohol.
✅Please clean the wound with alcohol.' / 'Please clean the wound with rubbing alcohol.
💡no 'the' for the substance in general.

3. in chemistry, any member of a large family of organic compounds whose molecules

3.名詞C1
釋義

in chemistry, any member of a large family of organic compounds whose molecules carry one or more -OH (hydroxyl) groups, such as methanol, ethanol, or glycerol.

例句

Methanol and ethanol are the two simplest alcohols students learn about in school.

countable plural: alcohols

Dr. Jamal asked the class to draw the structure of three different alcohols on the board.

同義詞

用法筆記

Only this sense takes a plural ('alcohols') and the indefinite article ('an alcohol'). If the text is talking about beer, wine, or drunkenness, you almost certainly want sense 1 or 2.

常見錯誤

❌I drank three alcohols last night.
✅I drank three glasses of wine last night.
💡the plural 'alcohols' is a chemistry term, not a way to count drinks.