What does dimethylamine mean?
Dimethylamine is an organic chemical compound with the formula (CH₃)₂NH: a colourless, flammable gas with two methyl groups attached to a single nitrogen atom, making it the simplest member of the class of secondary amines. Its vapour has a strong, fishy, ammonia-like odour, which is characteristic of low-molecular-weight amines. Because it boils only slightly above room temperature, it is usually handled commercially as a pressurised liquid or as an aqueous solution. In industry, dimethylamine is valued chiefly as a reactive intermediate: it enters the synthesis of solvents such as dimethylformamide, agricultural chemicals including the herbicide atrazine, rubber-processing agents, surfactants, and numerous pharmaceuticals. The word belongs firmly to technical registers — chemistry texts, patents, safety data sheets — and is rarely encountered outside them, though its relatives trimethylamine and methylamine occasionally surface in discussions of food spoilage and body odour. For chemists it is a foundational building block; for the general reader it is a reminder that even unpleasant-smelling gases underpin much modern manufacturing.
nounA colourless, flammable gas with a fishy, ammonia-like odour, (CH₃)₂NH, that is the simplest secondary amine; it is used chiefly as an industrial intermediate in the manufacture of solvents, pesticides, rubber chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
- The chemical compound (CH₃)₂NH, a gaseous secondary amine with two methyl groups bonded to a nitrogen atom.
"Dimethylamine is a key intermediate in producing the herbicide atrazine."
"The plant stores dimethylamine as a pressurised liquid before feeding it into the reactor."
"Aqueous solutions of dimethylamine are commonly used to neutralise acidic intermediates during synthesis."
Rarely used; the substance is normally referred to as an uncountable mass noun. The plural appears mainly when discussing different amine compounds or derivatives together.
"Both primary and secondary dimethylamines were detected in the reaction mixture."
Despite its foul, ammonia-like stench, dimethylamine is quietly indispensable — it helps make everything from atrazine weedkiller to the rubber in your tyres.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dimethylamine
The term combines the prefix 'di-' (from Greek 'dis', meaning 'twice') with 'methyl' and 'amine'. 'Methyl' derives from French 'méthyle', coined in the 19th century from Greek 'methy' ('wine') and 'hylē' ('wood'), reflecting methanol's early isolation from wood alcohol. 'Amine' was formed in the 19th century from 'ammonia' (ultimately via Latin from Greek, referencing the Egyptian god Amun through the salt ammonium). Dimethylamine thus literally denotes an amine bearing two methyl groups, named by systematic organic-chemistry nomenclature once structural theory developed in the mid-19th century.
Related word forms
How dimethylamine is actually used
Strictly technical register: dimethylamine appears almost exclusively in chemistry, industry, and safety documentation rather than everyday speech. It is a mass noun when referring to the substance generally, though 'dimethylamines' can appear when discussing multiple amine compounds collectively. It is usually handled as an aqueous solution or liquefied gas, since it boils at about 7 °C.
Easily confused with dimethylamine
Trimethylamine is the tertiary amine with three methyl groups and is the compound largely responsible for the smell of rotting fish, whereas dimethylamine has two methyl groups and one N–H bond.
Methylamine carries only one methyl group attached to nitrogen, while dimethylamine carries two.