Oligomer Terminology As we know, dimers, trimers etc. can be produced from a certain amount monomers. In the case of a dimer being produced, two monomers dimerise.

Let's take an example of a dimer (glycine anhydride):



Two glycine monomers were dimerised for this - it's a dimer since it has 2 (poly)amide bonds.



Now, let's take an example of an ester (ethyl ethanoate):


This is where my question comes in: would it not be appropriate to call ethyl ethanoate a monomer? As we saw with glycine anhydride, it has two (poly)amide bonds, hence it's a dimer. Ethyl ethanoate has a single ester bond, so would this not render it as a monomer? Or is this incorrect logic, since ethyl ethanoate isn't an oligomer/polymer per se?



P.S. I sometimes put the word 'poly' in parenthesis since I'm not sure whether its usage is necessary in description.
You can call it a monomer, although your audience will expect that you are about to present its oligomerization or polymerization. And according to IUPAC you should put parentheses if in the brackets you have the repeat unit of the polymer: e.g. poly(styrene).