What does butanone mean?
Butanone is a colorless, volatile organic compound with the formula CH₃COC₂H₅, classified chemically as a ketone and better known industrially as methyl ethyl ketone, or MEK. It is a clear liquid with a sharp, sweetish odor reminiscent of acetone, and it evaporates readily at room temperature. Its principal value lies in its power as a solvent: butanone dissolves a wide range of paints, varnishes, lacquers, adhesives, and resins, which makes it a staple of printing, coatings, plastics manufacturing, and cleaning operations. Because it is highly flammable and its vapors can be harmful when inhaled over time, it must be handled with ventilation and appropriate safety precautions, and some jurisdictions regulate its sale and storage. The name reflects its structure: it derives from butane, its four-carbon backbone, combined with the '-one' suffix that denotes the ketone family. Though rarely encountered outside technical contexts, butanone is one of the most widely produced industrial chemicals in the world.
nounA volatile, flammable organic compound (CH₃COC₂H₅), a ketone used chiefly as an industrial solvent; also known as methyl ethyl ketone or MEK.
- The chemical compound CH₃COC₂H₅ (methyl ethyl ketone), a colorless, flammable liquid used widely as an industrial solvent for paints, resins, and adhesives.
"The print shop stocked drums of butanone for cleaning the presses."
"Butanone dissolves many plastics and resins, making it indispensable in surface coatings."
"Laboratory workers handled butanone only inside a fume hood because of its flammable vapors."
Rarely pluralized; the plural appears mainly when referring to different batches, grades, or substituted derivatives of butanone.
"The lab catalog listed several substituted butanones alongside the parent compound."
That sharp, nail-polish-adjacent smell in many workshops is often butanone — a solvent so effective it's regulated as a hazardous material in several countries.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of butanone
Butanone takes its name from butane, the four-carbon hydrocarbon whose skeleton underlies the molecule, joined to the '-one' ending characteristic of the ketone class of compounds. The '-one' suffix itself was introduced in nineteenth-century chemical nomenclature to mark carbonyl compounds, appearing in related names such as acetone. Its common industrial name, methyl ethyl ketone, describes the two carbon chains attached on either side of the central carbonyl group. As such, it shares its naming roots with other ketones like acetone and with alkanes such as propane and butane.
How butanone is actually used
Primarily a technical term used in chemistry and industry; in everyday industrial settings the abbreviation MEK is more common than 'butanone'. No figurative or informal uses exist.
Easily confused with butanone
Butane is a gaseous alkane fuel (C₄H₁₀), whereas butanone is a liquid ketone containing an oxygen atom and used as a solvent.
Acetone is the smallest ketone (propanone); butanone is its larger four-carbon analogue with a stronger odor and slower evaporation.