Monoxide

How to spell monoxide

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce monoxide

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does monoxide mean?

1. nounAn oxide that contains a single atom of oxygen in each molecule, most often referring to carbon monoxide.

Monoxide in a sentence

• A faulty boiler can leak carbon monoxide into the house.

• Every bedroom now has a monoxide alarm fitted near the ceiling.

Where does monoxide come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is a modern chemical compound word built from two parts. The first element comes from the Greek monos, meaning 'single' or 'alone', the same root that gives us 'monologue' and 'monopoly'. The second element, 'oxide', was coined by French chemists in the late 1700s from oxygene, the name Lavoisier gave to the newly identified gas; that name combined the Greek oxys, meaning 'sharp' or 'acid', with the suffix -gen, meaning 'producing', because oxygen was wrongly thought to be the essential ingredient of all acids. A 'monoxide' is therefore literally a compound containing a single atom of oxygen, in contrast to a dioxide with two. The term came into English scientific use in the nineteenth century as chemists systematised the naming of gases. For spelling, the key is remembering the single 'n' in mono- and the hidden 'x' that carries the 'ks' sound in oxide.

How the word is built

• mono- (one, single)
• oxide (a compound of oxygen)