methane

See also méthane

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From methyl + -ane.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (US)

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• 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: 甲烷 (cmn) (jiǎ wán) 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. 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 the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001