Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several isomeric, volatile, colorless, highly flammable liquid hydrocarbons, C7H16, obtained in the fractional distillation of petroleum and used as solvents. The straight-chain isomer is also used as a standard in determining octane ratings and as an anesthetic.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A paraffin having the formula C7H16.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) Any one of several isometric hydrocarbons, C7H16, of the paraffin series (nine are possible, four are known); -- so called because the molecule has seven carbon atoms. Specifically, a colorless liquid, found as a constituent of petroleum, in the tar oil of cannel coal, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun organic chemistry Any of the nine isomers of the saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon C7H16, obtained from petroleum, especially n-heptane (CH3(CH2)5CH3)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a colorless volatile highly flammable liquid obtained from petroleum and used as an anesthetic or a solvent or in determining octane ratings

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hepta- + -ane

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Examples

  • It is pure heptane which is the 2nd ingredient in rubber cement.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • It is pure heptane which is the 2nd ingredient in rubber cement.

    Dear Bibliobull - sticker stuff 2008

  • My mad laboratory had various smell chemicals to experiment with lighter fluid, grease remover, heptane solvent etc, but I didn't WANT to experiment.

    how cosmetics saved my life 2008

  • Modern tapes have an acrylic adhesive which responds both to heat and to heptane (rubber cement thinner) or naphtha (lighter fluid) [not at the same time!]

    Dear Bibliobull - Dirty cards 2008

  • Modern tapes have an acrylic adhesive which responds both to heat and to heptane (rubber cement thinner) or naphtha (lighter fluid) [not at the same time!]

    Archive 2008-06-01 2008

  • The compounds are classified as asphaltenes or maltenes according to their solubility in hexane or heptane.

    Asphalt 2008

  • They then adopt a more rational approach for the rest, with pentane, hexane, heptane, octane and onwards in Greek.

    On twoth DC 2008

  • Professors Schorlemmer and Thorpe have found heptane in

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 443, June 28, 1884 Various

  • Inside the chamber, small drops of chemicals such as heptane or methanol are set on

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2012

  • In another finding, air samples taken in mid-May outside the organization's office near downtown New Orleans showed elevated levels of hexane and heptane, neurotoxins found in petroleum.

    Christian Science Monitor | All Stories 2010

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