hydrogen
- 01 B1 Intermediate
the simplest and lightest chemical element, found in water and all living things.
the chemical element with atomic number 1 and symbol H. Uncountable when referring to the element in a general or chemical sense.
Simple“Hydrogen is the most common element in the entire universe.”
In context“Hydrogen atoms consist of a single proton and a single electron, making it the simplest and most abundant element in the cosmos.”
UsageOften used as a modifier in compound nouns like 'hydrogen atom' or 'hydrogen bond'.
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
a gas with no colour or smell that burns very easily and can be used as fuel.
molecular hydrogen (H₂) existing as a colourless, odourless, and highly flammable gas at standard temperature and pressure.
Simple“The car runs on hydrogen instead of petrol to help the environment.”
In context“The experimental aircraft was powered by liquid hydrogen, which requires specialised storage tanks to maintain extremely low temperatures.”
UsageCommonly used with verbs like 'burn', 'store', or 'produce'.
Usage hydrogen atoms · hydrogen gas
“Scientists have created an unusually corrosion-resistant stainless steel that could replace costly titanium components used to produce green hydrogen.”
“Because hydrogen is so abundant in the universe, the line is easy for radio telescopes to detect.”
Borrowed from French hydrogène (“hydrogen”), coined by the French chemists Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737–1816) and Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) from hydro- (prefix meaning ‘water’) + -gène (suffix denoting a producer of something), from the fact that water is produced as a compound when hydrogen is oxidized. The prefix hydro- is borrowed from Ancient Greek ῠ̔δρο- (hŭdro-), from ῡ̆̔́δωρ (hū̆́dōr, “water”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European wed- (“water”). The suffix -gène is borrowed from Ancient Greek -γενής (-genḗs, suffix meaning ‘born in a certain condition or place’), from γένος (génos, “descendant, offspring; race; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ǵenh₁- (“to beget, produce; to give birth”)) + -ης (-ēs, suffix forming some third-declension adjectives). By surface analysis, hydro- (prefix meaning ‘water’) + -gen (suffix denoting a producer of something).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.