hypochlorous acid

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A weak, unstable acid, HOCl, occurring only as a greenish-yellow aqueous solution and used as a bleach, oxidizer, deodorant, and disinfectant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun chemistry a weak, unstable acid, HOCl, known only in solution; it is made by the action of chlorine on water and, along with its salts, the hypochlorites, is used as a household bleach

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a weak unstable acid known only in solution and in its salts; used as a bleaching agent and as an oxidizing agent