Which suffix indicates a compound is an alcohol?

The suffix that indicates a compound is an alcohol is -ol. This suffix is explicitly used to denote the presence of a hydroxyl group (-OH) in the molecular structure. In organic chemistry, the classification of alcohols relies heavily on the presence of this functional group, which distinguishes them from other types of organic compounds.

For example, ethanol, a common alcohol, has the chemical structure CH3CH2OH, where the -OH group indicates it is an alcohol. Other functional groups have their own distinctive suffixes: aldehydes use -al, which denotes the presence of a carbonyl group at the end of a carbon chain; alkanes are named with the suffix -ane, indicating only single bonds; and ketones feature the -one suffix to show the presence of a carbonyl group within the carbon chain. Each of these suffixes serves as a specific identifier for functional groups, clearly indicating the nature of the compound in question.