acrylic

1. 1.

   polymerized from acrylonitrile

   Synonymsacrylic fiber

   Broaderman-made fiber
2. 2.

   a glassy thermoplastic; can be cast and molded or used in coatings and adhesives

   Synonymsacrylic resinacrylate resin

   Broadersynthetic resin

   Narrowerpolypropenonitrilepolymethyl methacrylate
3. 3.

   used especially by artists

   Synonymsacrylic paint

   Broaderpaint
4. 4.

   a synthetic fabric

   Broaderfabric

   NarrowerCourtelleOrlon

Other forms of acrylic

plural

acrylics·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about acrylic

What does acrylic mean?

acrylic means "polymerized from acrylonitrile". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in acrylic?

acrylic has 3 syllables: a-cryl-ic. The stress falls on "cryl". In IPA it is /əˈkɹɪlɪk/.

What is another word for acrylic?

Close synonyms include acrylic fiber, acrylic resin, acrylate resin, acrylic paint. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is acrylic a common word?

acrylic is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.