Definitions

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

  • noun Chemical isomerism characterized by facile interconversion of isomeric forms in equilibrium, especially by migration of a hydrogen atom.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In organic chemistry, the phenomenon exhibited by certain compounds of reacting as if they possessed two different constitutions, that is, as if they consisted of two substances each structurally different from the other. For example, many compounds containing the group -CH2CO- behave as ketones toward some reagents, but act toward others as if they were unsaturated alcohols, -CH: COH-. In many cases both forms can be isolated.

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

  • noun (Chem.) The condition, quality, or relation of metameric substances, or their respective derivatives, which are more or less interchangeable, according as one form or the other is the more stable. It is a special case of metamerism; thus, the lactam and the lactim compounds exhibit tautomerism.

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

  • noun organic chemistry A form of isomerism in which a dynamic equilibrium between multiple isomers exists, such as that between an enol and a ketone.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[tauto– + (iso)merism.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tautomerism.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.