An oligoribonucleotide has been synthesized in solution, using an ionic-liquid-based soluble tag at a scale several hundred times that of a standard solid-phase synthesis approach. Ogilvie's 2′-TBDMS strategy was adopted, and because of the resultant increase in lipophilicity, it allowed an easier purification of the growing oligomer compared with the previously observed for DNA, which does not require 2′ protection. The procedure is illustrated by the synthesis of the pentaribonucleotide sequence AGAUC, corresponding to a segment of the tRNAfMet from E. coli.Key words: solution-phase RNA synthesis, ionic-liquid tag.