Noun: carbon
| Singular | carbon |
| Plural | carbons |
Sample Sentences
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All life as we know it has carbon as the backbone of many of its molecules; carbon’s tetravalence gives it special importance in biochemical molecular bonds.
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Carbon is the most common element in our bodies—indeed, in all living things on earth. [2006, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 20:]
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Fans will pump air through the alkaline stream, which causes carbon dioxide to form solid calcium carbonate, the material from which seashells are formed, which will look like a fine sand, as well as dissolved bicarbonate. [2024 April 21, Laura Paddison, “Can this ocean-based carbon plant help save the world? Some scientists are raising red flags”, in CNN:]
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A methane molecule is made up of a single carbon with four hydrogens.
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He stepped back and opened his bag and took out a printed pad of D.O.A. forms and began to write over a carbon. [1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 51:]
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Please provide me with a carbon of your form.
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Press firmly: you are making a carbon.
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Every morning she cleaned the carbon from the lamp chimneys.
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When you overhaul an engine, you need to remove the carbon from around the valve seats. The carbon buildup can be extensive.
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carbon neutral
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carbon capture
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If Alberta’s reserves are a carbon bomb, this global expansion of tar sands and oil shale exploitation amounts to an escalating emissions arms race, the unlocking of a subterranean cache of weapons of mass ecological destruction. [2014 April 25, Martin Lukacs, “Canada becoming launch-pad of a global tar sands and oil shale frenzy”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 190, number 20, page 13:]
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To trim an arc lamp, first remove the old carbons and carefully and thoroughly wipe the carbon rods, holders, &c. with a clean, dry rag. [1892, English Mechanic and World of Science, page 444:]
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carbon bike frame
Nouns inflected like carbon
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
Borrowed from French carbone, coined by Antoine Lavoisier, from Latin carbō, carbōnem (“charcoal, coal”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“to burn”). By surface analysis, carbo- + -on. See: French Nouns '
carbone', Latin Nouns '
carbō'.
Verbs referencing "carbon"
Dutch Nouns
carbon.