Dictionary

trivial name en · NOUN

Meanings

1. A commonly used, non-systematic name of a chemical compound. Trivial names for many compounds have been in use since long before their exact chemical structures were determined.
   • "Carbolic acid", "isopropyl alcohol", and "nitroglycerine" are trivial names for specific organic compounds that have formal systematic names defined by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. "Saltpetre" and "nitre" are trivial names for the inorganic compounds: sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate. In informal contexts, systematic names sometimes appear as trivial names; eg "alcohol", which is the correct generic term for any organic chemical compound in which a hydroxyl functional group is bound to a saturated carbon atom, is a common trivial name for "ethanol".
2. A non-systematic name for a chemical element (see systematic element name).
   • Trivial names for types of elements, such as "heavy metals", "noble metals", and "rare-earth elements" are terms of convenience, and either do not occur as such in the periodic table or do not form strict, coherent groups in the table. Element 137 (systematic name: untriseptium) is called by the unofficial trivial name "feynmanium", though it will not have an official trivial name until it is discovered.
3. A commonly used, non-systematic name for an organism.
   • Trivial names such as "worm", "shrimp", "fish", "toad", "cobra", "vulture", and "mahogany", though convenient and popular, do not refer to any systematically-defined biological groupings of organisms.
4. A specific epithet.

Forms

Relateds

common name · systematic name · semisystematic name · vernacular name · semitrivial name

Translations (4)

sv trivialnamn (a common name for a chemical compound) · ru тривиальное наименова́ние (a common name for a chemical compound) · cs triviální název (a common name for a chemical compound) · da trivialnavn (a common name for a chemical compound)