Standard Lemma guide

naphthalene

noun · 3 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.

  • /ˈnæfθəliːn/
  • /ˈnæpθəliːn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: N AE1 F TH AH0 L IY2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A white crystalline hydrocarbon manufactured from coal tar; used in mothballs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

An aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon, C10H8; an acene containing two fused benzene rings.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

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

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a white crystalline strong-smelling hydrocarbon made from coal tar or petroleum and used in organic synthesis and as a fumigant in mothballs

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: hydrocarbon

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Akkadian napṭumbor.? Old Persian *naftahbor. Ancient Greek νάφθα (náphtha)bor. Latin naphthabor. English naphth(a) English -al French -ènebor. English -ene English naphthalene From naphth(a) + -al + -ene.

Across languages

Translations

32 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: нафталин (naftalin) — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Catalan: naftalina — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Chinese Mandarin: 萘 (nài) — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Czech: naftalín — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Esperanto: naftalino — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Finnish: naftaleeni — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • French: naphtalène — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • German: Naphthalin — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Greek: ναφθαλίνη (nafthalíni) — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Hungarian: naftalin — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Ido: naftalino — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Italian: naftalina — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Japanese: ナフタレン (nafutaren) — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Kazakh: нафталин (naftalin) — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Portuguese: naftalina — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Russian: нафтали́н (naftalín) — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Spanish: naftalina — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Tagalog: naptalina — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Turkish: naftalin — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Turkish: güve otu — white crystalline hydrocarbon
  • Bulgarian: нафталин (naftalin) — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Catalan: naftalina — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Catalan: naftalè — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Chinese Cantonese: 萘 (noi6) — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Chinese Mandarin: 萘 (nài) — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Czech: naftalen — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Greek: ναφθαλίνη (nafthalíni) — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Italian: naftalene — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Japanese: ナフタレン (nafutaren) — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Japanese: ナフタリン (nafutarin) — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Korean: 나프탈렌 (napeutallen) — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon
  • Russian: нафтали́н (naftalín) — aromatic bicyclic hydrocarbon