What does "nanotube" mean?

Shortening of carbon nanotube; A carbon molecule, in the shape of a tube, having a fullerene structure and a diameter of about 1 or 2 nanometers.

What is a synonym for "nanotube"?

Common synonyms include: carbon nanotube, carbon nanotube, buckytube, buckytube.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Shortening of carbon nanotube; A carbon molecule, in the shape of a tube, having a fullerene structure and a diameter of about 1 or 2 nanometers.
2
a fullerene molecule having a cylindrical or toroidal shape wordnet
3
any nanotech tubular structure with a characteristic diameter measured in a few nanometres, such as titanium nanotubes

"Further research is needed before a carbon nanotube biosensor for salmonella is available commercially."

From nano- + tube.

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