alcohol

alcohol — 名詞

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

1.名詞A2
釋義

酒；酒類

啤酒、葡萄酒等含酒精的飲料

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.

Esme 今晚要開車，所以不喝酒。

verb pattern: drink alcohol

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

台南那家新開的咖啡廳賣咖啡跟蛋糕，但不賣酒。

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

酒精；乙醇

讓酒能醉人並可作消毒、燃料用的透明液體

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.

護理師幫 Tomás 打針之前，先用酒精擦了一下她的手臂。

collocation: rub alcohol on something

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

乾洗手能殺菌，是因為裡面含有大約百分之七十的酒精。

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

醇類；醇

化學上含一個以上羥基的有機化合物總稱

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.

甲醇和乙醇是學生在學校最先學到的兩種醇類。

countable plural: alcohols

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

Jamal 博士請全班在黑板上畫出三種不同醇類的結構式。

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.