What does ethene mean?
Ethene is a colourless, faintly sweet-smelling, highly flammable gas with the chemical formula C₂H₄, consisting of two carbon atoms joined by a double bond and four hydrogen atoms. It is the smallest and structurally simplest member of the alkene family, and it holds a place of enormous industrial importance: polymerised into long chains, it becomes polyethene (polyethylene), the plastic best known as polythene, produced on a scale unmatched by almost any other organic chemical. Ethene also plays a vital biological role as a gaseous plant hormone, regulating processes such as the ripening of fruit, the dropping of leaves, and the ageing of flowers — which is why storing ripe fruit beside unripe fruit speeds up ripening. Chemists generally use the systematic name "ethene," while "ethylene," an older trivial name for exactly the same compound, persists in industry and American usage. The word belongs to formal scientific registers and appears chiefly in chemistry, materials science, and botany.
nounA colourless, flammable gaseous hydrocarbon (C₂H₄) with a sweet odour; the simplest alkene and the systematic IUPAC name for what is commonly called ethylene.
- As chemistry: the simplest alkene hydrocarbon, C₂H₄, a colourless flammable gas used chiefly as a raw material for polythene and other plastics.
- As plant biochemistry: a gaseous plant hormone that regulates fruit ripening, leaf fall, and senescence.
"Ripe bananas release ethene, which triggers the ripening of nearby fruit."
"Polyethene, one of the world's most widely produced plastics, is manufactured by polymerising chains of ethene molecules."
"Farmers ship green tomatoes under controlled atmospheres because exposure to ethene would start them ripening in transit."
Rarely pluralised except when referring collectively to substituted derivatives of ethene (compounds derived from it by replacing hydrogen atoms); the uncountable singular is normal for the gas itself.
"Halogenated ethenes such as vinyl chloride were once widely used in industrial synthesis."
The fruit in your fruit bowl talks to itself — ripening apples and bananas release ethene gas that tells their neighbours to ripen too, which is why one rotten apple really can spoil the bunch.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of ethene
The name "ethene" was coined in the mid-19th century from "ethyl" plus the ending "-ene", following the systematic nomenclature devised by chemists such as August Wilhelm von Hofmann to classify hydrocarbons by degree of unsaturation. It ultimately derives through "ethyl" from the Greek "aithēr" (αἰθήρ), meaning upper air or ether, the root behind the older name "ether" and related terms such as "ethanol." The compound had earlier been known as "olefiant gas" because it forms an oily liquid when combined with chlorine, a property that gave rise to the term "olefin" for its chemical family. Its synonym "ethylene," formed analogously in the same period, remains the more familiar name in industry and American English.
Related word forms
How ethene is actually used
"Ethene" is the preferred systematic IUPAC term, especially in British English and scientific writing, while "ethylene" remains the dominant everyday and industrial term, particularly in American English. In plant science contexts, "ethylene" is still standard even in formal literature. The word is technical rather than colloquial and carries no figurative or connotative uses.
Easily confused with ethene
Ethane is the saturated alkane C₂H₆ with only single bonds, whereas ethene is the unsaturated alkene C₂H₄ containing a carbon–carbon double bond.
Ethylene is simply the older common/trivial name for the same compound that ethene names systematically; they are synonyms, not different substances.