Not
everything with a hydroxyl group is considered an alcohol, even by
chemists. Alkali metal hydroxides, for example. Or water. Or sugars.
Or even phenol, though that's getting a bit more borderline.
Yes, I thought that was odd when I read it yesterday. Isn't an alcohol
defined by "-COOH"? ($DEITY, organic chemistry was 40+ years ago, and
just for fun.)
-COOH is an organic acid. COOH is formic acid; CH3COOH is acetic acid and