methane

See also: méthane

English

Etymology

methyl +‎ -ane

Pronunciation

• enPR: mēth'ān IPA^(key): /ˈmiːθeɪn/
• enPR: mĕth'ān, IPA^(key): /ˈmɛθeɪn/

• 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, and one of the most abundant greenhouse gases.

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

   Hypernym: greenhouse gas

   Cattle emit a large amount of methane.

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

Derived terms

• azomethane
• biomethane
• bromomethane
• chloromethane
• coalbed methane
• fluoromethane
• geomethane
• iodomethane
• methane clathrate
• methane gas
• methane hydrate
• methanelike
• methane rain
• methanesulfonamide
• methanesulfonic acid
• methanotrophy
• nitromethane
• nonmethane

 

Translations

the compound CH₄

• Abkhaz: амета́н (ametʼán)
• Azerbaijani: metan
• Breton: metan m
• Catalan: metà m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 甲烷 (gaap³ jyun⁴)

  Mandarin: 甲烷 (zh) (jiǎwán)

• Czech: metan (cs) m
• Dutch: methaan (nl) n
• Erzya: ведь тол (veď tol)
• Esperanto: metano (eo)
• Finnish: metaani (fi)
• French: méthane (fr) m
• German: Methan (de) n
• Greek: μεθάνιο (el) n (methánio)
• Hungarian: metán (hu)
• Icelandic: metan
• Irish: meatán m
• Italian: metano (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: メタン (ja) (metan), メタンガス (metan gasu)
• Kazakh: метан (metan)
• Korean: 메탄 (metan)
• Latin: methanum
• Malay: metana
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: metan (no) n

  Nynorsk: metan n

• Occitan: metan (oc) m
• Polish: metan (pl) m
• Portuguese: metano (pt) m
• Romanian: metan (ro) n
• Russian: мета́н (ru) m (metán)
• Slovene: metan (sl) m
• Spanish: metano (es) m
• Swedish: metan (sv) n
• Tagalog: istan
• Turkish: metan (tr)

Further reading

• methane on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• meaneth