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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sulfur.

A chemical element with atomic number 16, having a bright yellow color and characteristic smell, used commercially in a variety of products such as insecticides, black powder, and matchsticks.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsʌl.fə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsʊl.fə/Northern-England/ˈsʌl.fəɹ/Scotland/ˈsʌl.fɚ/Canada, US
  1. A chemical element with atomic number 16, having a bright yellow color and characteristic smell, used commercially in a variety of products such as insecticides, black powder, and matchsticks.

    uncountable · usually
  2. A chemical element with atomic number 16, having a bright yellow color and characteristic smell, used commercially in a variety of products such as insecticides, black powder, and matchsticks. The element symbolically associated with hellfire or damnation, or in alchemy, the fiery principle present in all things.

    uncountable · usually
  3. A yellowish green colour, like that of sulfur.

    countable · uncountable · usually
  4. Any of various pierid butterflies of the subfamily Coliadinae, especially the sulfur-coloured species.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin sulpur Latin sulfur Latin sulphur Anglo-Norman sulfrebor. Middle English sulphur English sulfur From Middle English sulphur, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sulfre, from Latin sulfur, from sulpur itself of uncertain origin. Displaced Old English swefl and largely displaced brimstone.

adj/ˈsʌl.fə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsʊl.fə/Northern-England/ˈsʌl.fəɹ/Scotland/ˈsʌl.fɚ/Canada, US
  1. Of a yellowish green colour, like that of sulfur.

  2. Having a characteristic sulfur-like smell, reminiscent of rotten eggs.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin sulpur Latin sulfur Latin sulphur Anglo-Norman sulfrebor. Middle English sulphur English sulfur From Middle English sulphur, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sulfre, from Latin sulfur, from sulpur itself of uncertain origin. Displaced Old English swefl and largely displaced brimstone.

verb/ˈsʌl.fə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsʊl.fə/Northern-England/ˈsʌl.fəɹ/Scotland/ˈsʌl.fɚ/Canada, US
  1. To treat with sulfur, or a sulfur compound, especially to preserve or to counter agricultural pests.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin sulpur Latin sulfur Latin sulphur Anglo-Norman sulfrebor. Middle English sulphur English sulfur From Middle English sulphur, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sulfre, from Latin sulfur, from sulpur itself of uncertain origin. Displaced Old English swefl and largely displaced brimstone.

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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.