noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The unsaturated chlorinated hydrocarbon CCl₂=CHCl used as an industrial solvent and formerly as an anaesthetic. countable, uncountable

   "The nurse gave the woman in labour trichloroethylene, a chemical also used to clean metal parts."

2. 2
   a heavy colorless highly toxic liquid used as a solvent to clean electronic components and for dry cleaning and as a fumigant; causes cancer and liver and lung damage wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

tcetrichloroethanetrichloroethene

Example

More examples

"The nurse gave the woman in labour trichloroethylene, a chemical also used to clean metal parts."

Etymology

tri- + chloro- + ethylene (“ethyl (“eth- + -yl”) + -ene”)

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