Hydrocarbon

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A compound consisting only of carbon and hydrogen atoms.
"Chofen is an unusually small hydrogen-helium gas giant, with traces of sulphur and hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. The Alliance surveyor ship Ibn Battuta provided inconclusive evidence of hydrocarbon life in the atmosphere (over 1000 meters below the cloud tops), where pressure compresses Chofen's hydrogen into a liquid state."
2
an organic compound containing only carbon and hydrogen wordnet

Synonyms

alcohol chemical

Example

"Algeria is rich in hydrocarbon resources."

Etymology

From hydro- + carbon.

Related phrases

Clar's hydrocarbon Platonic hydrocarbon multi-hydrocarbon non-hydrocarbon polyaromatic hydrocarbon polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.