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phosphate.

Any salt or ester of phosphoric acid.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfɒsfeɪt/UK/ˈfɑsfeɪt/General-American
  1. Any salt or ester of phosphoric acid.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Any fertiliser containing phosphate compounds.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Guano (containing high levels of phosphates and harvested for the fertiliser industry).

    countable · uncountable
  4. A carbonated soft drink containing phosphoric acid, often flavored with a fruit-based syrup.

    US · countable · dated · regional · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂os Proto-Hellenic *pʰáwos Ancient Greek φᾰ́ος (phắos) Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs) Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti Proto-Hellenic *pʰérō Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō) Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Hellenic *-os Ancient Greek -ος (-os) Ancient Greek -φόρος (-phóros) Ancient Greek φωσφόρος (phōsphóros)bor. Latin phōsphorusder. French phosphore Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātuslbor. French -ate French phosphateder. English phosphate From French phosphate. By surface analysis, phosphoric acid + -ate (“salt or ester”).

verb/ˈfɒsfeɪt/UK/ˈfɑsfeɪt/General-American
  1. To treat or coat with a phosphate or phosphoric acid.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English phosphoric acid Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātuslbor. English -ate English phosphate From phosphoric acid + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

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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.