salicylic acid

1. 1.

   a white crystalline substance with a bitter aftertaste; used as a fungicide or in making aspirin or dyes or perfumes

   Synonyms2-hydroxybenzoic acid

   Broaderhydroxy acid

Questions about salicylic acid

What does salicylic acid mean?

salicylic acid means "a white crystalline substance with a bitter aftertaste; used as a fungicide or in making aspirin or dyes or perfumes".

What is another word for salicylic acid?

Close synonyms include 2-hydroxybenzoic acid. 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 salicylic acid a common word?

salicylic acid is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.