carboxylic acid

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An organic acid that contains one or more carboxyl groups.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Chem.) an organic compound whose acidity is due to the presence of a carboxyl gorup. Monocarboxylic acids (such as acetic acid or butyric acid) have one carboxyl group, dicarboxylic acids (such as oxalic acid or malonic acid) have two, tricarboxylic acids (such as citric acid) have three.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun organic chemistry Any of a class of organic compounds containing a carboxyl functional group.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an organic acid characterized by one or more carboxyl groups