If your mind did immediately go to cocktails, you’re thinking of ethyl alcohol, often called ethanol.
If you’re thinking rubbing alcohol, that’s a whole different composition.
Thetype of alcohol used in rubbing alcoholis isopropyl alcohol, but the two are not synonymous.

So, what exactly is the difference between isopropyl alcohol and rubbing alcohol?
The concentration, mainly.
Isopropyl alcohol can also be found in a variety of lotions, cosmetics, and face cleansers.

Its best known usage, though, is rubbing alcohol.
What is rubbing alcohol?
But pure isopropyl alcohol isn’t actually rubbing alcohol.
The antiseptic that we know as rubbing alcohol contains around 70% of isopropyl alcohol, perDrugs.com.
What’s more, the denaturants in it make it unsuitable for drinking.
If all of that science threw you off, we’ll break it down a bit more simply.
It’s just a matter of adding a bit of water to dilute it to make it more effective.