What does "hydrogen" mean?

1. (chemical element) the simplest and lightest chemical element, found in water and all living things. 2. (flammable gas) a gas with no colour or smell that burns very easily and can be used as fuel.

How do you use "hydrogen"?

Often used as a modifier in compound nouns like 'hydrogen atom' or 'hydrogen bond'. Commonly used with verbs like 'burn', 'store', or 'produce'.

hydrogen

US //ˈhaɪdɹədʒən// UK //hˈaɪdɹədʒən// hy·dro·gen

1 chemical element (n.)
B1 Intermediate Technical Science

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.

Example

Hydrogen is the most common element in the entire universe.

Example

Hydrogen atoms consist of a single proton and a single electron, making it the simplest and most abundant element in the cosmos.

Usage

Often used as a modifier in compound nouns like 'hydrogen atom' or 'hydrogen bond'.
2 flammable gas (n.)
B2 Upper Intermediate Technical Science

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.

Example

The car runs on hydrogen instead of petrol to help the environment.

Example

The experimental aircraft was powered by liquid hydrogen, which requires specialised storage tanks to maintain extremely low temperatures.

Usage

Commonly used with verbs like 'burn', 'store', or 'produce'.

Origin

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).

Word family

Noundehydrogenase
Nounhydrogen
Nounhydroxyl

Idioms1 entry

01
hydrogen burning
The nucleosynthesis process, in stars of less than 1.2 solar mass, in which hydrogen is converted to helium, deuterium and some lithium.