Terephthalate
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any salt or ester of terephthalic acid.
"For eons, the debris has contained the same things — flecks from plant and animal carcasses, feces, mucus, dust, microbes, viruses — and transported the ocean’s carbon to be stored on the seafloor. Increasingly, however, marine snowfall is being infiltrated by microplastics: fibers and fragments of polyamide, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. And this fauxfall appears to be altering our planet’s ancient cooling process."
Example
More examples"For eons, the debris has contained the same things — flecks from plant and animal carcasses, feces, mucus, dust, microbes, viruses — and transported the ocean’s carbon to be stored on the seafloor. Increasingly, however, marine snowfall is being infiltrated by microplastics: fibers and fragments of polyamide, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. And this fauxfall appears to be altering our planet’s ancient cooling process."
Etymology
From terephthalic acid + -ate (“salt or ester”).
Related phrases
More for "terephthalate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.