Glymes, also known as glycol diethers, are some the most powerful solvents available today for an incredibly wide variety of industrial processes and products. Glymes are saturated polyethers with no functional groups, hence they are aprotic compounds that are relatively inert chemically. These features account for their excellent solvent properties.

In general, glymes are most frequently used in reactions involving metals, inorganic salts and organometallics. Common examples are grignard reactions, reactions of alkali metals, anionic polymerization, metal hydride reactions and hydrobrominations.