organic compounds

Cultural  

1. The compounds containing carbon that are typically found in living systems.

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Generally, anything made from living systems, such as cloth, fuels, or wood, is said to be organic. Organic foods are grown with no fertilizer except the organic compounds found naturally in plants and animals.

Example Sentences

The e-noses can sniff out the unique signatures of volatile organic compounds not only in the breath, but in excretions like sweat or urine, and have AI quickly identify them.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026

Volatile organic compounds like benzene, stemming from burnt PVC pipes, have entered drinking water.

From BBC • Mar. 16, 2026

Writing on Feb. 4 in the journal Astrobiology, the researchers reported that the non biological mechanisms they examined could not fully account for the abundance of organic compounds detected by Curiosity.

From Science Daily • Feb. 12, 2026

Their earlier work examined how clay minerals bind organic matter and how microbes preferentially convert certain organic compounds into carbon dioxide.

From Science Daily • Feb. 9, 2026

Some organic compounds are simply combinations of carbon and hydrogen.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson