petroleum

pe·tro·le·um

Use petroleum in a sentence

Drilling for petroleum underground.

noun

Petroleum is an oily mixture of hydrocarbons that can be extracted from layers of rock and used to produce fuel.

The hydrocarbons in rock strata that are used to produce the gas in your car are an example of petroleum.

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"petroleum." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 September 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/Petroleum>.

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petroleum. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/Petroleum

petroleum

an oily, flammable, liquid solution of hydrocarbons, yellowish-green to black in color, occurring naturally in the rock strata of certain geological formations: when fractionally distilled, it yields paraffin, fuel oil, kerosene, gasoline, etc.

Origin of petroleum

Medieval Latin from Classical Latin petra, rock ( from Gr) + oleum, oil

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MLA Style

"petroleum." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 September 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/Petroleum>.

APA Style

petroleum. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/Petroleum

petroleum

noun

A thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons that occurs naturally beneath the earth's surface, can be separated into fractions including natural gas, gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, fuel and lubricating oils, paraffin wax, and asphalt and is used as raw material for a wide variety of derivative products.

Origin of petroleum

Middle English from Medieval Latin petrōleum Latin petra rock ; see petrous . Latin ōleum oil ; see oil .

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"petroleum." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 September 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/Petroleum>.

APA Style

petroleum. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/Petroleum

Noun

(plural petroleums or petrolea)

A flammable liquid ranging in color from clear to very dark brown and black, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring naturally in deposits under the Earth's surface.

Origin

From Medieval Latin petroleum, from petra (“rock") + oleum (“oil").

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.