*A commercial source for the cyanide group is diethylaluminum cyanide  which can be prepared from triethylaluminium and HCN. It has been used in nucleophilic addition to ketones. For an example of its use see: Kuwajima Taxol total synthesis
* Cyanide ions facilitate the coupling of dibromides. Reaction of α,α′-dibromoadipic acid with sodium cyanide in ethanol yields the cyano cyclobutane:     
* Aromatic nitriles can be prepared from base hydrolysis of trichloromethyl aryl ketimines () in the Houben-Fischer synthesis
* Nitriles can be obtained from primary amines via oxidation. Common methods include the use of potassium persulfate, Trichloroisocyanuric acid, or anodic electrosynthesis.
* α-Amino acids form nitriles and carbon dioxide via various means of oxidative decarboxylation. Henry Drysdale Dakin discovered this oxidation in 1916.
* From aryl carboxylic acids (Letts nitrile synthesis)