Standard Lemma guide

turpentine

noun · verb · 6 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: /ˈtɜː.pənˌtaɪn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈtɝ.pənˌtaɪn/
  • rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)pəntaɪn
  • CMU ARPABET: T ER1 P AH0 N T AY2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any oleoresin secreted by the wood or bark of certain trees.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A volatile essential oil now obtained from such oleoresin of from the wood of pine trees by steam distillation; a complex mixture of monoterpenes; now used as a solvent and paint thinner.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: spirit of turpentine, spirits of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine, turps, tarpin

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A turpentine tree (genus Syncarpia).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

To drain resin from (a tree) for use in making turpentine.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

volatile liquid distilled from turpentine oleoresin; used as paint thinner and solvent and medicinally

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: oil of turpentine, spirit of turpentine, turps

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: essential oil, volatile oil

6

noun

Meaning 6

obtained from conifers (especially pines)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: gum terpentine

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: oleoresin

Narrower terms: Chian turpentine

History

Etymology

From Middle English terebentyne, terbentyne, turbentine, from Old French terbentine, turbentine, Latin terebinthīna, from terebintha, from Ancient Greek τερεβινθίνη (terebinthínē), from τερεβινθινος (terebinthinos), from τερέβινθος (terébinthos). Related to terpene and terpin; etymologically equivalent to terebinth + -ine.

Across languages

Translations

102 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: terpentinë — volatile essential oil
  • Arabic: تِرْبَنْتِين (tirbantīn) — volatile essential oil
  • Arabic: نَفْط (nafṭ) — volatile essential oil
  • Armenian: բեւեկն (bewekn) — volatile essential oil
  • Armenian: սկիպիդար (skipidar) — volatile essential oil
  • Azerbaijani: skipidar — volatile essential oil
  • Belarusian: шкіпіна́р (škipinár) — volatile essential oil
  • Belarusian: шпікіна́р (špikinár) — volatile essential oil
  • Belarusian: шпігіна́р (špihinár) — volatile essential oil
  • Belarusian: тарпаты́на (tarpatýna) — volatile essential oil
  • Bengali: তার্পিন (tarpin) — volatile essential oil
  • Bulgarian: терпенти́н (terpentín) — volatile essential oil
  • Burmese: တာရပင်ဆီ (tara.panghci) — volatile essential oil
  • Burmese: ထင်းရှူးဆီ (htang:hru:hci) — volatile essential oil
  • Burmese: တာပင်တိုင် (tapangtuing) — volatile essential oil
  • Catalan: aiguarràs — volatile essential oil
  • Chinese Mandarin: 松節油 /松节油 (sōngjiéyóu) — volatile essential oil
  • Czech: terpentýn — volatile essential oil
  • Danish: terpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Dutch: terpentijn — volatile essential oil
  • Esperanto: terebinto — volatile essential oil
  • Estonian: tärpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Estonian: tärpentiin — volatile essential oil
  • Finnish: tärpätti — volatile essential oil
  • French: essence de térébenthine — volatile essential oil
  • French: térébenthine — volatile essential oil
  • Georgian: კევი (ḳevi) — volatile essential oil
  • Georgian: სკიპიდარი (sḳiṗidari) — volatile essential oil
  • Georgian: ბელეკონი (beleḳoni) — volatile essential oil
  • German: Terpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Greek: τερεβινθίνη (terevinthíni) — volatile essential oil
  • Greek: τερεβινθέλαιο (terevinthélaio) — volatile essential oil
  • Greek: νέφτι (néfti) — volatile essential oil
  • Gujarati: ટરપિથ (ṭarpith) — volatile essential oil
  • Hawaiian: kapenekine — volatile essential oil
  • Hebrew: טֶרפָּנטִין (terpantín) — volatile essential oil
  • Hindi: तारपीन (tārpīn) — volatile essential oil
  • Hungarian: terpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Icelandic: terpentína — volatile essential oil
  • Ido: terpentino — volatile essential oil
  • Indonesian: terpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Irish: tuirpintín — volatile essential oil
  • Irish: ola bhí — volatile essential oil
  • Irish: ola thuirpintín — volatile essential oil
  • Italian: acquaragia — volatile essential oil
  • Italian: trementina — volatile essential oil
  • Italian: essenza di trementina — volatile essential oil
  • Japanese: テレビン油 (terebin'yu) — volatile essential oil
  • Japanese: 松脂油 (matsuyaniabura) — volatile essential oil
  • Kazakh: скипидар (skipidar) — volatile essential oil
  • Khmer: ជ័រស្រល់ (cɔə srɑl) — volatile essential oil
  • Korean: 테레빈유 (terebinyu) — volatile essential oil
  • Korean: 투르펜틴 (tureupentin) — volatile essential oil
  • Korean: 송지유 (songjiyu) — volatile essential oil
  • Kyrgyz: скипидар (skipidar) — volatile essential oil
  • Lao: ຢາງສົນ (yāng son) — volatile essential oil
  • Latvian: terpentīns — volatile essential oil
  • Lithuanian: terpentinas — volatile essential oil
  • Macedonian: терпентин (terpentin) — volatile essential oil
  • Malay: turpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Māori: hinu paina — volatile essential oil
  • Nahuatl: oxitl — volatile essential oil
  • Nepali: तारपिन (tārapina) — volatile essential oil
  • Norwegian Bokmål: terpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: terpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Persian: تِرِبانْتین (terebântin) — volatile essential oil
  • Polish: terpentyna — volatile essential oil
  • Portuguese: aguarrás — volatile essential oil
  • Portuguese: terebintina — volatile essential oil
  • Punjabi: ਤਾਰਪੀਨ (tārpīn) — volatile essential oil
  • Romanian: terebentină — volatile essential oil
  • Russian: скипида́р (skipidár) — volatile essential oil
  • Russian: терпенти́н (terpentín) — volatile essential oil
  • Serbo-Croatian: терпѐнтӣн — volatile essential oil
  • Serbo-Croatian: terpèntīn — volatile essential oil
  • Slovak: terpentín — volatile essential oil
  • Slovene: terpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Spanish: aguarrás — volatile essential oil
  • Spanish: trementina — volatile essential oil
  • Swahili: terafini — volatile essential oil
  • Swedish: terpentin — volatile essential oil
  • Tagalog: agwaras — volatile essential oil
  • Tagalog: lunay — volatile essential oil
  • Tagalog: turpentayn — volatile essential oil
  • Tajik: скипидар (skipidar) — volatile essential oil
  • Thai: น้ํามันสน (nám-man-sǒn) — volatile essential oil
  • Turkish: terebentin — volatile essential oil
  • Turkish: terementi — volatile essential oil
  • Turkish: terementin — volatile essential oil
  • Ottoman Turkish: نفت یاغی (neft yağı) — volatile essential oil
  • Ottoman Turkish: روغن نفت (revgan-ı neft, ruğan-ı neft) — volatile essential oil
  • Ottoman Turkish: ترمنتین (terementin) — volatile essential oil
  • Ottoman Turkish: ترمنتی (terementi) — volatile essential oil
  • Turkmen: skipidar — volatile essential oil
  • Ukrainian: скипида́р (skypydár) — volatile essential oil
  • Ukrainian: шпиґина́р (špygynár) — volatile essential oil
  • Ukrainian: шпигина́р (špyhynár) — volatile essential oil
  • Ukrainian: терпенти́на (terpentýna) — volatile essential oil
  • Urdu: تارپِین (tārpīn) — volatile essential oil
  • Uyghur: ئىسكىپدار (iskipdar) — volatile essential oil
  • Uzbek: skipidar — volatile essential oil
  • Vietnamese: nhựa thông — volatile essential oil
Real reading context

turpentine in complete knowledge articles