What is "acyloin"

n. (context organic chemistry English) Any α-hydroxy ketone.

In chemistry acyloins are a class of organic compounds which all possess the secondary alpha- hydroxy ketone functional group. Thus, they all contain a hydroxyl group placed on the α-position of a carbonyl group. The named acyloin is derived from the fact that they are formally derived from reductive coupling of carboxylic acyl groups.