What does acrylamide mean?
Acrylamide is a colourless, odourless, water-soluble crystalline compound — chemically the amide of acrylic acid — that serves industry primarily as the building block of polyacrylamide polymers. Those polymers are widely used to treat drinking water and wastewater, to strengthen paper, and to make the gels that molecular biologists rely on to separate proteins and DNA fragments in the laboratory. Beyond its industrial role, acrylamide has become a household concern because it also forms naturally through the Maillard reaction when starchy foods such as potatoes, bread, and coffee are fried, baked, or roasted at high temperatures. Because animal studies have linked it to cancer, regulators including the WHO classify it as a probable human carcinogen, and health agencies advise consumers to avoid excessive browning of their food. The word therefore carries a distinctly technical register, appearing in chemistry texts, laboratory protocols, and food-safety reporting alike.
nounA colourless, odourless, crystalline amide of acrylic acid that is highly soluble in water and used chiefly to make polyacrylamide polymers; it is also formed naturally in some starchy foods during high-temperature cooking.
- A colourless crystalline amide of acrylic acid, CH₂=CHCONH₂, used industrially to produce polyacrylamide polymers for water treatment, papermaking, and laboratory gels.
- The same compound as it occurs as a probable carcinogen formed in starchy foods such as potatoes and bread during frying, baking, or roasting at high temperatures.
"The laboratory separated the protein fragments using a gel cast from acrylamide."
"Researchers ran the DNA fragments through an acrylamide gel to resolve the fine differences in fragment length."
"Health authorities have issued guidance on reducing dietary acrylamide by avoiding over-browning potatoes and toast."
Rarely used; the plural appears mostly in technical writing to refer to different acrylamide compounds or multiple measured samples rather than the substance in general.
"The study compared the acrylamides detected across several brands of roasted coffee."
This industrial chemical turns up in your toast — it forms naturally when potatoes and bread are browned at high heat.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does acrylamide come from?
Acrylamide was coined in the nineteenth century from 'acrylic', itself derived from the Greek 'akros', meaning 'sharp' or 'pungent' — a reference to the sharp smell of the parent acid — combined with the '-amide' suffix denoting a nitrogen-containing derivative of an acid. It belongs to the same word family as acrylic acid, acrylate, and acrylonitrile, all built on that Greek root. The compound gained widespread public attention only in 2002, when Swedish scientists announced its unexpected presence in heated starchy foods.
How acrylamide is actually used
Acrylamide is a technical term used mainly in chemistry, food science, toxicology, and molecular biology. In everyday news coverage it appears almost exclusively in discussions of food safety and health risk, where its classification as a probable human carcinogen gives it a cautionary connotation. It is uncountable in most contexts, though a plural referring to specific measured quantities occasionally appears in scientific writing.
Easily confused with acrylamide
Acrylic refers to acrylic acid or its derivatives such as paints and fibres, whereas acrylamide is a specific crystalline amide compound derived from acrylic acid.
Acetamide is the amide of acetic acid, while acrylamide is the amide of acrylic acid containing a carbon–carbon double bond.