Standard Lemma guide

polypropylene

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.

  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P AA2 L IY2 P R OW1 P AH0 L IY2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A thermoplastic resin made by the polymerization of propylene, and used for films, fibres, or moulding materials.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • Near-synonym: ♷

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: PP, polypropene, ♷

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: polyolefin

2

noun

Meaning 2

a polymer of propylene used as a thermoplastic molding material

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: polypropene

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: plastic

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pleh1- Proto-Indo-European *polh1ús Ancient Greek πολῠ́ς (polŭ́s)lbor. English poly- English propylene English polypropylene From poly- + propylene.

Across languages

Translations

15 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: polipropilè — resin
  • Chinese Mandarin: 聚丙烯 (jùbǐngxī) — resin
  • Czech: polypropylen — resin
  • Estonian: polüpropeen — resin
  • Finnish: polypropeeni — resin
  • French: polypropylène — resin
  • German: Polypropylen — resin
  • Greek: πολυπροπυλένιο (polypropylénio) — resin
  • Italian: polipropilene — resin
  • Japanese: ポリプロピレン (poripuropiren) — resin
  • Korean: 폴리프로필렌 (pollipeuropillen) — resin
  • Polish: polipropylen — resin
  • Russian: полипропиле́н (polipropilén) — resin
  • Swedish: polypropylen — resin
  • Vietnamese: polipropilen — resin