Due to the importance of 3(2H)-furanones in natural products,pharmaceuticals,and designed compounds,1-2 many elegant strategies have been developed for the construction of this five-membered heterocycles,mainly through intramolecular cyclization reactions.3-7 Herein,we wish to report a copper-catalyzed [4+1] annulation between the α-hydroxy ketones and nitriles,which provides a facile and efficient method for the synthesis of a wide range of highly substituted 3(2H)-furanones(Scheme 1).