This article presents a systematic investigation of the optical properties and the growth process of CdTe nanocrystals during their hot-injection-based synthesis in liquid paraffin. Cadmium(II) stearate and tributylphosphine telluride are used as precursors. The as-obtained nanocrystals are characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), UV-vis absorbance, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The changes in optical absorbance and fluorescence during the nanocrystal synthesis are studied. The average nanocrystal size and the mean nanocrystal concentration are derived from the optical spectra and their changes during the synthesis are investigated. It is found that synthesis at lower temperature (150 A degrees C) favors the continuous nucleation and leads to the formation of relatively smaller nanocrystals (similar to 3 nm in size), whereas the nanocrystal concentration is relatively constant during synthesis at higher temperature (250 A degrees C) thus leading to the formation of larger nanocrystals (similar to 5 nm in size).