carbon
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: kärʹbən
ipa: /ˈkɑɹ.bən/
ipa: /ˈkɑːbən/
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)bən
Forms: form: carbons
form: carbone
Etymology: Borrowed from French carbone, coined by Antoine Lavoisier, from Latin carbō, carbōnem (“charcoal, coal”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“to burn”). By surface analysis, carbo- + -on.
Senses: examples: text: All life as we know it has carbon as the backbone of many of its molecules; carbon’s tetravalence gives it special importance in biochemical molecular bonds.
text: Carbon is the most common element in our bodies—indeed, in all living things on earth.
ref: 2006, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 20:
text: Fans will pump air through the alkaline stream, which causes carbon dioxide to form solid calcium carbonate, the material from which seashells are formed, which will look like a fine sand, as well as dissolved bicarbonate.
ref: 2024 April 21, Laura Paddison, “Can this ocean-based carbon plant help save the world? Some scientists are raising red flags”, in CNN:
glosses: The chemical element (symbol C) with an atomic number of 6. It can be found in pure form for example as graphite, a black, shiny and very soft material, or diamond, a colourless, transparent, crystalline solid and the hardest known material.
examples: text: A methane molecule is made up of a single carbon with four hydrogens.
glosses: An atom of this element, in reference to a molecule containing it.
examples: text: He stepped back and opened his bag and took out a printed pad of D.O.A. forms and began to write over a carbon.
ref: 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 51:
glosses: A sheet of carbon paper.
examples: text: Please provide me with a carbon of your form.
text: Press firmly: you are making a carbon.
glosses: A carbon copy.
glosses: A fossil fuel that is made of impure carbon such as coal or charcoal.
examples: text: Every morning she cleaned the carbon from the lamp chimneys.
glosses: Soot.
examples: text: When you overhaul an engine, you need to remove the carbon from around the valve seats. The carbon buildup can be extensive.
glosses: Soot.
Especially, hardened soot as a caked-on deposit.
examples: text: carbon neutral
text: carbon capture
text: If Alberta’s reserves are a carbon bomb, this global expansion of tar sands and oil shale exploitation amounts to an escalating emissions arms race, the unlocking of a subterranean cache of weapons of mass ecological destruction.
ref: 2014 April 25, Martin Lukacs, “Canada becoming launch-pad of a global tar sands and oil shale frenzy”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 190, number 20, page 13:
topics: biology
ecology
natural-sciences
qualifier: climate change
glosses: Ellipsis of carbon dioxide.
examples: text: To trim an arc lamp, first remove the old carbons and carefully and thoroughly wipe the carbon rods, holders, &c. with a clean, dry rag.
ref: 1892, English Mechanic and World of Science, page 444:
glosses: A carbon rod or pencil used in an arc lamp.
glosses: A plate or piece of carbon used as one of the elements of a voltaic battery.
examples: text: carbon bike frame
glosses: Ellipsis of carbon fiber (reinforced polymer).
Hyponyms: sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: activated carbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: alpha carbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: beta carbon nitride
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: black carbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: blind carbon copy
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: blue carbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: carbon-12
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: carbon-13
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: carbon-14
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: chlorocarbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: chlorofluorocarbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: ferrocarbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: fluorocarbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: fluorochlorohydrocarbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: glassy carbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: halocarbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: hydrocarbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: inorganic carbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: Q-carbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: radiocarbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: sulphuretted carbon
sense: Hyponyms of carbon
word: vegetable carbon
Derived terms: anticarbon
benzyloxycarbonyl
biocarbon
carbapenem
carbazotic acid
carb-
carbo-
carbinol
carbinyl
carbogen
Carboloy
carbonæmia
carbon anhydride
carbon arc
carbonate
carbonation
carbon audit
carbon-based
carbon bisulfide
carbon bisulphide
carbon black
carbon budget
carbon burning
carbon capture
carbon-carbon bond
carbon chauvinism
carbon chauvinist
carbon chloride
carbon-copy
carbon copy
carbon cost
Carbon County
carbon credit
carbon cycle
carbon-date
carbon dating
carbon debt
carbon detonation
carbon dioxid
carbon dioxide
carbon dioxide equivalent
carbon dioxide-equivalent
carbon dioxide snow
carbon diselenide
carbon disulfide
carbon disulphide
carbon emissions trading
carbon-ferrous
carbon fiber
carbon fibre
carbon fixation
carbon footprint
carbon-free
carbon group
carbonian
carbonic
carbonide
carbonific
carbonification
carbon inset
carbon insetting
carbon-intensive
carbonise
carbonize
carbonite
carbonization
carbon leakage
carbonless
carbonlike
carbon literacy
carbon market
carbon microphone
carbon monofluoride
carbon monoxide
carbon nanofiber
carbon nanofibre
carbon nanofoam
carbon nanotube
carbon negative
carbon-neutral
carbon neutrality
carbon-nitrogen cycle
carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle
carbon number
carbon offset
carbon offsetting
carbonometer
carbonosome
carbonous
carbon oxide
carbon oxychloride
carbon oxysulfide
carbon oxysulphide
carbon paper
carbon planet
carbon print
carbon printing
carbon process
carbon resistor
carbon sequestering
carbon sequestration
carbon sink
carbon star
carbon steel
carbon subnitride
carbon suboxide
carbon tablet
carbon tax
carbon tet
carbon tetrabromide
carbon tetrachloride
carbon tetrafluoride
carbon tetraiodide
carbon trade
carbon trading
carbon transmitter
carbonyl
carborexia
carborundum
Carborundum
carboxide
carboxyl
carburet
chromo-carbon
chromocarbon
cyanocarbon
dicarbon
halon
hydrobromofluorocarbon
intercarbon
monocarbon
multi-carbon
nanocarbon
nitrocarbol
nitrocarbon
noncarbon
organocarbon
oxocarbon
perfluorocarbon
petrocarbon
polycarbon
pyrocarbon
sulfide of carbon
sulphide of carbon
tetracarbon
thiocarbon
zinc-carbon battery
Related terms: carbonaceous
carbonade
carbonado
carbonara
Carbonari
carbonate
carboniferous
carbonify
carbonigenous
carbuncle