An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds, such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon (such as CO and CO₂), and cyanides are considered inorganic. The distinction between organic and inorganic carbon compounds, while "useful in organizing the vast subject of chemistry... is somewhat arbitrary".

Organic chemistry is the science concerned with all aspects of organic compounds. Organic synthesis is the methodology of their preparation.

History

Vitalism

The word organic is historical, dating to the 1st century. For many centuries, Western alchemists believed in vitalism. This is the theory that certain compounds could be synthesized only from their classical elements—earth, water, air, and fire—by the action of a "life-force" (vis vitalis) that only organisms possessed. Vitalism taught that these "organic" compounds were fundamentally different from the "inorganic" compounds that could be obtained from the elements by chemical manipulation.