acetylene

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a colorless, highly flammable gas used especially for welding and cutting metals; ethyne

   The welder used acetylene to produce an intensely hot flame.

2. 2
   noun

   an acetylene lamp or the light produced by one

   A portable acetylene lit the entrance to the mine.

Borrowed from French acétylène, coined in the nineteenth century from acetyl and the chemical suffix -ene. Its systematic chemical name is ethyne, the simplest member of the alkyne family.

Topics