Standard Lemma guide

nitrox

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈnaɪtɹɒks/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈnaɪtɹɑks/

1

noun

Meaning 1

An industrial process for case hardening (imparting greater surface hardness to) metal objects, involving nitrocarburizing (the diffusion of carbon and nitrogen into the metal) followed by oxidation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Topics: engineering, metallurgy, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, the nitrogen content being lower than that of normal air, which is used in place of air as a breathing gas.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Topics: diving, hobbies, lifestyle, sports, underwater-diving

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Blend of nitro(gen) + ox(ygen). Analyzable as nitro- + ox

Across languages

Translations

12 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: نيتروكس — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Chinese Mandarin: 高氧氣體 /高氧气体 (gāoyǎngqìtǐ) — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Finnish: nitroksi — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • French: nitrox — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • German: Nitrox — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Hebrew: נייטרוקס — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Italian: nitrox — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Persian: نایتروکس — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Russian: нитрокс (nitroks) — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Russian: найтрокс (najtroks) — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Serbo-Croatian: nitroks — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas
  • Serbo-Croatian: nitrox — mixture of nitrogen and oxygen used as a breathing gas