noun ·5 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A cotton-like material, made from cellulose by the action of nitric and sulphuric acids, used in the manufacture of explosives, collodion etc. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   a nitric acid ester; used in lacquers and explosives wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

cellulose nitratenitrocottoncellulose nitrateflash papergun cottongun cotton

Etymology

From nitro- + cellulose.

Related phrases

nitric acidsulphuric acid

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