nucleophile
noun
nucleophile is spelled N-U-C-L-E-O-P-H-I-L-E: 11 letters. It appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, nucleophile means “A compound or functional group that is attractive to centres of positive charge, and donates electrons, especially donating an electron pair to an…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of nucleophile is nucleophiles.
How many letters and syllables are in nucleophile?
| Letters | 11: N-U-C-L-E-O-P-H-I-L-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 16 million words; the 121,279th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is nucleophile?
Nucleophile appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce nucleophile?
- US
- UK
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-nucleophile.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Tesco250-nucleophile.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of nucleophile
- nucleophiles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does nucleophile mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A compound or functional group that is attractive to centres of positive charge, and donates electrons, especially donating an electron pair to an electrophile to form a bond.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Nucleophile in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense compound or functional group attractive to centres of positive charge:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Nukleophil |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does nucleophile come from?
From nucleo- + -phile.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).