Phrase guide

dephlogisticated air

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /diːflə(ʊ)ˌd͡ʒɪstɪkeɪtid ˈɛə/
  • General-American: /difləˌd͡ʒɪstəˌkeɪtid ˈɛɚ/
  • General-American: /-floʊ-/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛə(ɹ)

1

noun

Meaning 1

oxygen gas, as originally thought to be air deprived of phlogiston (“the hypothetical fiery principle formerly assumed to be a necessary constituent of combustible bodies and to be given up by them in burning”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical, uncountable

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: dephlogisticated gas

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From dephlogisticated (“from which the phlogiston has been removed”) + air, coined by the English chemist Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) in a 1775 article entitled “An Account of Further Discoveries in Air” published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: see the quotation.

Across languages

Translations

1 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: flogistoniton ilma — oxygen gas, as originally thought to be air deprived of phlogiston — see also oxygen