methane

See also méthane

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From methyl + -ane.

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA: /ˈmɛθɛɪn/
• (RP) IPA: /ˈmiːθeɪn/
• (US) enPR: mĕth'ān, IPA: /ˈmɛθeɪn/, X-SAMPA: /"mETeIn/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛθeɪn

Noun

methane (countable and uncountable; plural methanes)

1. (organic chemistry, uncountable) The simplest aliphatic hydrocarbon, CH₄, being a constituent of natural gas.

   Cattle emit a large amount of methane.

2. (organic chemistry, countable) Any of very many derivatives of methane.

Synonyms

• methyl hydride (appears in some chemistry literature)
• carbon tetrahydride (rare, systematic name)

Translations

the compound CH₄

• Azeri: metan (az)
• Breton: metan (br) m
• Catalan: metà (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 甲烷 (cmn) (jiǎwán)

• Czech: metan (cs) m
• Dutch: methaan (nl) n
• Erzya: ведь тол
• Esperanto: metano (eo)
• Finnish: metaani (fi)
• German: Methan (de) n
• Greek: μεθάνιο (el) (methánio) n 
• Icelandic: metan (is)
• Irish: meatán (ga) m

• Italian: metano (it)
• Japanese: メタン (ja) (metan)
• Kazakh: метан (kk) (metan) 
• Korean: 메탄 (ko) (metan)
• Latin: methanum (la)
• Malay: metana (ms)
• Norwegian: metan (no) n
• Polish: metan (pl) m
• Romanian: metan (ro) n
• Russian: метан (ru) (metán) m 
• Spanish: metano (es) m
• Swedish: metan (sv) n
• Turkish: metan (tr)

Anagrams

• meaneth

References

• “methane” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).