About

Nomenclature101.com is designed to help you learn organic chemistry nomenclature by creating nomenclature quizzes based on your learning needs. The site follows a set of internationally recognized rules for nomenclature, established by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Many of the molecules also have a description of how it is used in “real-life.” This learning tool is available in English and French and all the questions are interactive. The questions contain hints, feedback, and the option to reveal the correct answer. We welcome your suggestions, comments, and corrections.

Learning objectives

After working through quizzes in this learning tool, you will be able to:

  1. Identify functional groups, given a molecular structure.
  2. Name a molecule, according to IUPAC rules, given its structure.
  3. Draw a molecule, given its IUPAC name.

Nomenclature rules

The IUPAC nomenclature rules are explained to support your learning of organic nomenclature. This guide describes many of the key types of molecules you should be able to name (e.g., alkanes, alcohols, amides, benzene derivatives, etc.), but is not an extensive guide (e.g., it does not describe how to name bicyclic molecules, heterocycles, etc.).

You can find additional nomenclature resources here:

Help

Not sure how to get started? Visit the help section for suggestions.

Print/Save the questions and answers

This site was designed for interactive online learning, but you can also create a quiz then save it to pdf or print it.

ChemAxon

This tool uses ChemAxon's "Marvin for JavaScript" applet (academic license) and their "JChem Web Services" (academic license). For assistance using the "Marvin for JavaScript" drawing applet, please consult the user manual.

Browsers

Some features and styles may not function on older browsers. We suggest viewing/using this tool in an HTML5/CSS3 compatible browser such as the latest releases of Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer.

Survey

We would love to hear your comments, suggestions, and error reports to help us improve this learning tool.