Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A colorless flammable gas, C2H4, derived from natural gas and petroleum and also occurring as a natural plant hormone, used as a source of many organic compounds, in welding and cutting metals, to ripen citrus fruits, and as an anesthetic.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun C2H4. A colorless poisonous gas having an unpleasant, suffocating smell.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) A colorless, gaseous hydrocarbon, C2H4, forming an important ingredient of illuminating gas, and also obtained by the action of concentrated sulphuric acid in alcohol. It is an unsaturated compound and combines directly with chlorine and bromine to form oily liquids (Dutch liquid), -- hence called olefiant gas. Called also ethene, elayl, and formerly, bicarbureted hydrogen.
  • noun (Chem.) the series of unsaturated hydrocarbons of which ethylene is the type, and represented by the general formula CnH2n.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun organic chemistry The common name for the organic chemical compound ethene. The simplest alkene, a colorless gaseous (at room temperature and pressure) hydrocarbon with the chemical formula C2H4.
  • noun organic chemistry The divalent radical derived from ethane.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a flammable colorless gaseous alkene; obtained from petroleum and natural gas and used in manufacturing many other chemicals; sometimes used as an anesthetic

Etymologies

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Examples

  • According to Pemex, this will reduce imports by enabling the domestic manufacture of certain ethylene derivatives that are currently only available from overseas producers.

    Lloyd Mexico Economic Report June 2002 2006

  • According to Pemex, this will reduce imports by enabling the domestic manufacture of certain ethylene derivatives that are currently only available from overseas producers.

    Lloyd Mexico Economic Report June 2002 2006

  • When a stream of ethylene is directed on to nickel, cobalt or iron, which has been freshly reduced and kept in the region of 300°C, intense incandescence of the metal with deposition of large quantites of carbon due to breakdown of the ethylene occurs.

    Paul Sabatier - Nobel Lecture 1966

  • Dad must've been a tad behind the times, though, since I just found out that antifreeze was first prepared, and called ethylene glycol, in 1859 the family Buick wasn't quite that old by a French chemist named Charles Adolphe Wurtz.

    Maggie Van Ostrand: New Year's Non-Resolutions: Appreciating the Inventions that Make Our Lives Easier Maggie Van Ostrand 2011

  • Dad must've been a tad behind the times, though, since I just found out that antifreeze was first prepared, and called ethylene glycol, in 1859 the family Buick wasn't quite that old by a French chemist named Charles Adolphe Wurtz.

    Maggie Van Ostrand: New Year's Non-Resolutions: Appreciating the Inventions that Make Our Lives Easier Maggie Van Ostrand 2011

  • For example, in making ethylene, which is needed to produce the plastic product polyethylene, the by-product propylene is created.

    THE STORY OF STUFF Annie Leonard 2010

  • For example, in making ethylene, which is needed to produce the plastic product polyethylene, the by-product propylene is created.

    THE STORY OF STUFF Annie Leonard 2010

  • For example, in making ethylene, which is needed to produce the plastic product polyethylene, the by-product propylene is created.

    THE STORY OF STUFF Annie Leonard 2010

  • For example, in making ethylene, which is needed to produce the plastic product polyethylene, the by-product propylene is created.

    THE STORY OF STUFF Annie Leonard 2010

  • "Plants exposed to wind produce a growth-retardant hormone called ethylene, which causes the plant to be shorter and to have thicker stems.

    Penn State Live 2008

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