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methane.

The simplest aliphatic hydrocarbon, CH₄, being a constituent of natural gas, and one of the most abundant greenhouse gases.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmiːθeɪn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɛθeɪn/Canada, US
  1. The simplest aliphatic hydrocarbon, CH₄, being a constituent of natural gas, and one of the most abundant greenhouse gases.

    uncountable
    Cattle emit a large amount of methane.
  2. Any of very many derivatives of methane.

    countable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *médʰu Proto-Hellenic *métʰu Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu) Proto-Indo-European *swel-der.? Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē)der. German -yl German Methylbor. English methyl Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Proto-Italic *-ānos Latin -ānusder. English -ane English methane From methyl + -ane.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.