It is a colorless liquid that is soluble in organic solvents.

The name indicates that this compound is the sulfur analogue—the thioether rather than the oxygen-centered ether—of anisole.

Alkyllithium reagents deprotonate thioanisole at the methyl group to afford C6H5SCH2Li, a strong nucleophile that can be alkylated to form more complex chains and structures.

The resulting homologated thioether can be manipulated in a variety of ways.

[2] Oxidation of sulfur via addition of a single oxygen atom gives methyl phenyl sulfoxide,[3] a reaction useful for titration of oxidants such as dimethyldioxirane.