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Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
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-one

Various chemical compounds, especially ketones.

[Greek patronymic -ōnē.]

A ketone is an organic compound containing a carbonyl group ==C==O bonded to two alkyl groups. The simplest such compound is acetone (formal name propanone); another is butanone, methyl ethyl ketone; in systematic naming, the ending often appears hyphenated: 3,5-dimethylheptan-4-one.

A variety of more complex organic compounds contain the same ending, as for example benzoquinone, a yellow crystalline compound related to benzene; dithizone (more fully diphenylthiocarbazone), a synthetic compound used as a reagent for the analysis and separation of lead and other metals; glutathione, a compound involved as a coenzyme in oxidation-reduction reactions in cells.

See also -onic and -sterone.

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