Page "Alcohol" Paragraph 4

Other alcohols are usually described with a clarifying adjective, as in isopropyl alcohol ( propan-2-ol ) or wood alcohol ( methyl alcohol, or methanol ).

The suffix-ol appears in the IUPAC chemical name of all substances where the hydroxyl group is the functional group with the highest priority ; in substances where a higher priority group is present the prefix hydroxy-will appear in the IUPAC name.

The suffix-ol in non-systematic names ( such as paracetamol or cholesterol ) also typically indicates that the substance includes a hydroxyl functional group and, so, can be termed an alcohol.

But many substances, particularly sugars ( examples glucose and sucrose ) contain hydroxyl functional groups without using the suffix.