methane

See also: méthane

English

Etymology

From methyl +‎ -ane.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: mēth'ān IPA^(key): /ˈmiːθeɪn/
• (US, Canada) enPR: mĕth'ān, IPA^(key): /ˈmɛθeɪn/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛθeɪn

Noun

methane (countable and uncountable, plural methanes)

1. (organic chemistry, uncountable) The simplest aliphatic hydrocarbon, CH₄, being a constituent of natural gas, and one of the most abundant greenhouse gases.

   Synonyms: (appears in some chemistry literature) methyl hydride, (rare, systematic name) carbon tetrahydride

   Hypernym: greenhouse gas

   Cattle emit a large amount of methane.

   • 2020 April 7, John Fialka, “As CO₂ Emissions Drop During Pandemic, Methane May Rise”, in Scientific American‎:

     Methane, an invisible, odorless gas that makes up more than 95% of natural gas fuel, can be as much as 80 times more potent as a global warmer per given unit than CO₂, which is more plentiful in the atmosphere. While there are less emissions than CO₂, methane lasts around 12 years, while CO₂ lingers for centuries.

2. (organic chemistry, countable) Any of very many derivatives of methane.

Derived terms

• aminomethane
• azomethane
• azoxymethane
• biomethane
• bromochlorofluoroiodomethane
• bromodichloromethane
• bromodifluoromethane
• bromofluoromethane
• bromoiodomethane
• bromomethane
• chlorodifluoromethane
• chloroiodomethane
• chloromethane
• coalbed methane
• demethanize
• dibromodifluoromethane
• dichlorodifluoromethane
• dichloromethane
• difluoromethane
• diindolylmethane
• diiodomethane
• dimethoxymethane
• diphenylmethane
• fluoroiodomethane
• fluoromethane
• geomethane
• germanomethane
• halomethane
• iodomethane
• methalox
• methanal
• methanation
• methane clathrate
• methane gas
• methane hydrate
• methanelike
• methane rain
• methanesulfonamide
• methanesulfonic acid
• methanethiol
• methanic
• methanide
• methaniferous
• methanium
• methanize
• methanogen
• methanogenesis
• methanogenetic
• methanoic
• methanol
• methanolysis
• methanometer
• methanone
• methanosphere
• methanotroph
• methanotrophy
• methoxymethane
• methylsulfonylmethane
• methylsulphonylmethane
• monohydroxymethane
• nimesulide
• nitromethane
• nonmethane
• phenylmethane
• quinolinemethanethiol
• rifametane
• silicomethane
• tetrachloromethane
• tetrahalomethane
• tetranitromethane
• triarylmethane
• trichlorofluoromethane
• trifluoroiodomethane
• triphenylmethane

 

Descendants

• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਮੀਥੇਨ (mīthen)

  Shahmukhi script: میتھین (mīthen)

Translations

the compound CH₄

Abkhaz: амета́н (ametʼán) Arabic: please add this translation if you can Armenian: please add this translation if you can Azerbaijani: metan Bengali: মিথেন (bn) (mithen) Breton: metan m Bulgarian: метан (bg) m (metan) Catalan: metà m Chinese: Cantonese: 甲烷 (gaap3 jyun4) Mandarin: 甲烷 (zh) (jiǎwán) Czech: metan (cs) m Dutch: methaan (nl) n Erzya: ведь тол (veď tol) Esperanto: metano (eo) Finnish: metaani (fi) French: méthane (fr) m Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Methan (de) n Greek: μεθάνιο (el) n (methánio) Hebrew: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: metán (hu) Icelandic: metan Indonesian: metana (id) Irish: meatán m Italian: metano (it) Japanese: メタン (ja) (metan), メタンガス (metan gasu) Kazakh: метан (metan) Khmer: មេតាន (meitaan) Korean: 메탄 (metan), 메테인 (metein) Latin: methanum Malay: metana Norwegian: Bokmål: metan (no) n Nynorsk: metan n Occitan: metan (oc) m Persian: متان (fa) (metân) Polish: metan (pl) m Portuguese: metano (pt) m Punjabi: ਮੀਥੇਨ m (mīthen) Romanian: metan (ro) n Russian: мета́н (ru) m (metán) Slovene: metan (sl) m Spanish: metano (es) m Swedish: metan (sv) n Tagalog: istan Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: metan (tr) Vietnamese: mê-tan (vi) Welsh: methan m, llosgnwy m

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “methane”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

• methane on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• meaneth