Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various isomeric alkanes with the formula C8H18, found in petroleum and used as a fuel and solvent.
  • noun An octane number.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An oily hydrocarbon, C8H18, of the paraffin series. It occurs in petroleum, and is one of the chief constituents of ligroin. It boils at 124° C. The name is sometimes given to diisobutyl (C8H18).

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

  • noun (Chem.) Any one of a group of metametric hydrocarbons (C8H18) of the methane (paraffin) series. The most important is a colorless, volatile, inflammable liquid, found in petroleum, and a constituent of gasoline or ligroin.

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

  • noun chemistry Any of the eighteen isomeric aliphatic hydrocarbons (C8H18) found in petroleum, especially an iso-octane 2,2,4 trimethyl-pentane; they are used as fuels and solvents.

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

  • noun any isomeric saturated hydrocarbon found in petroleum and used as a fuel and solvent

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

octo- + -ane

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