Standard Lemma guide

hydrocarbon

noun · 2 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.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AY2 D R OW0 K AA1 R B AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A compound consisting only of carbon and hydrogen atoms.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, organic-chemistry, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Narrower terms: alkane, alkene, alkyne, cycloalkane, cycloalkene, arene

2

noun

Meaning 2

an organic compound containing only carbon and hydrogen

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: organic compound

Narrower terms: chlorobenzene, aromatic compound, gasohol, gasoline, gasolene, gas, petrol, kerosene, kerosine, lamp oil, coal oil, aromatic hydrocarbon, indene, cymene, dioxin, ethane, C2H6, liquefied petroleum gas, bottled gas, bitumen, butadiene, naphtha, naphthalene, pyrene, octane, gas oil, terpene, provitamin

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wed- Proto-Indo-European *-r̥ Proto-Indo-European *wódr̥ Proto-Hellenic *údōr Ancient Greek ῡ̆̔́δωρ (hū̆́dōr) Ancient Greek ῠ̔δρο- (hŭdro-)der. English hydro- Proto-Indo-European *kerh3-der.? Latin carbōnemlbor. French carbonebor. English carbon English hydrocarbon From hydro- + carbon.

Across languages

Translations

57 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Asturian: hidrocarburu — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Basque: hidrokarburo — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Bulgarian: въглеводород (vǎglevodorod) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Catalan: hidrocarbur — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Chinese Cantonese: 烴 /烃 (ting1) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Chinese Cantonese: 碳氫化合物 /碳氢化合物 (taan3 hing1 faa3 hap6 mat6) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Chinese Mandarin: 烴 /烃 (tīng) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Chinese Mandarin: 碳氫化合物 /碳氢化合物 (tànqīnghuàhéwù) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Czech: uhlovodík — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Danish: kulbrinte — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Danish: karbonhydrid — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Dutch: koolwaterstof — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Esperanto: hidrokarbono — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Estonian: süsivesinik — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Faroese: kolvetni — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Finnish: hiilivety — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • French: hydrocarbure — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Galician: hidrocarburo — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • German: Kohlenwasserstoff — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Greek: υδρογονάνθρακας (ydrogonánthrakas) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Hindi: उदप्रांगार (udaprāṅgār) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Hungarian: szénhidrogén — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Icelandic: vetniskol — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Icelandic: kolvatnsefni — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Icelandic: kolvetni — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Indonesian: hidrokarbon — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Irish: hidreacarbón — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Italian: idrocarburo — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Japanese: 炭化水素 (tanka suiso) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Kazakh: көмірсутек (kömırsutek) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Khmer: អ៊ីដ្រូកាបូ (ʼiidroukaabou) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Khmer: ឧទង្គារ (ʼŏtôngkéar) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Korean: 탄화수소 (tanhwasuso) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Latvian: ogļūdeņradis — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Lithuanian: angliavandenilis — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Malay: hidrokarbon — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Māori: waiwaro — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hydrokarbon — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: hydrokarbon — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Occitan: idrocarbur — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Pannonian Rusyn: угльоводонїк (uhlʹovodonjik) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Persian: هیدروکربن (hidrokarbon) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Polish: węglowodór — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Portuguese: hidrocarboneto — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Romanian: hidrocarbură — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Romanian: hidrocarburi — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Russian: углеводоро́д (uglevodoród) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Slovak: uhľovodík — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Slovene: ogljikovodik — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Spanish: hidrocarburo — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Swedish: kolväte — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Thai: ไฮโดรคาร์บอน (hai-droo-kaa-bɔ̂n) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Turkish: hidrokarbon — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Ukrainian: вуглево́день (vuhlevódenʹ) — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Vietnamese: hiđrocacbon — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Vietnamese: hợp chất than nhẹ — compound of carbon and hydrogen
  • Welsh: hydrocarbon — compound of carbon and hydrogen
Real reading context

hydrocarbon in complete knowledge articles