Organic Chemistry Nomenclature Quiz

In normal communication to avoid long names

They provide unambiguous structural formulas

To standardize the naming of inorganic compounds

To provide unambiguous names for organic chemical compounds

They can be more easily understood

The IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry is published in the Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, informally called the Blue Book.

The purpose of the IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry is to provide a method for naming organic chemical compounds as recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), ensuring that every possible organic compound has a name from which an unambiguous structural formula can be created.

The official IUPAC naming recommendations are not always followed in practice, except when it is necessary to give an unambiguous and absolute definition to a compound, or to avoid long and tedious names in normal communication.

For relatively simple molecules, IUPAC names can be simpler and more easily understood than non-systematic names, which must be learnt or looked over.

An advantage of using IUPAC names for organic compounds is that they can sometimes be simpler than older names, as with ethanol instead of ethyl alcohol, and they provide unambiguous and absolute definitions to compounds.