Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Xylene

Xy′lene

,
Noun.
[Gr.
ξύλον
wood.]
(Chem.)
Any of a group of three metameric hydrocarbons of the aromatic series, found in coal and wood tar, and so named because found in crude wood spirit. They are colorless, oily, inflammable liquids,
C6H4.(CH3)2
, being dimethyl benzenes, and are called respectively
orthoxylene
,
metaxylene
, and
paraxylene
. Called also
xylol
.
☞ Each of these xylenes is the nucleus and prototype of a distinct series of compounds.

Definition 2024


xylene

xylene

See also: xylène

English

Noun

xylene (plural xylenes)

  1. (chemistry) Any of a group of three isomeric aromatic hydrocarbons, di-methyl-benzene, found in coal and wood tar.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 262:
      [...] proceeding, desperately, from such opiated catarrh preparations as Collis Brown's Mixture on to cocainized brain tonics, cigarettes soaked in absinthe, xylene in unventilated rooms, and so on [...].

Translations