petroleum
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
a thick, dark oil found under the ground that is used to make petrol and other fuels.
a naturally occurring liquid mixture of hydrocarbons that is refined into various fuels and chemical products. Uncountable in its general sense, though countable when referring to specific types or grades.
Simple“Many countries depend on petroleum to power their cars and factories.”
In context“The extraction of petroleum from deep-sea reserves requires sophisticated engineering and carries significant environmental risks.”
Teacher's tipIn everyday conversation, people usually just say 'oil' or 'crude oil'. 'Petroleum' is more common in scientific, industrial, or formal contexts.
Synonyms
“In addition to being a major petroleum producer, TotalEnergies operates gas stations to sell its products to the public.”
“India is looking to increase the volume of liquefied petroleum gas it buys from the U.S.”
From Medieval Latin petroleum, from petra (“rock”) + oleum (“oil”). Doublet of petrol.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.