carbon

• carbone (obsolete)

Borrowed from French carbone, coined by Antoine Lavoisier, from Latin carbō, carbōnem (“charcoal, coal”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“to burn”). By surface analysis, carbo- +‎ -on.

• (General American) enPR: kärʹbən, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑɹ.bən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːbən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)bən

carbon (countable and uncountable, plural carbons)

2. (uncountable) The chemical element (symbol C) with an atomic number of 6. It can be found in pure form for example as graphite, a black, shiny and very soft material, or diamond, a colourless, transparent, crystalline solid and the hardest known material.

   All life as we know it has carbon as the backbone of many of its molecules; carbon’s tetravalence gives it special importance in biochemical molecular bonds.

   • 2006, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 20:

     Carbon is the most common element in our bodies—indeed, in all living things on earth.

   • 2024 April 21, Laura Paddison, “Can this ocean-based carbon plant help save the world? Some scientists are raising red flags”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Fans will pump air through the alkaline stream, which causes carbon dioxide to form solid calcium carbonate, the material from which seashells are formed, which will look like a fine sand, as well as dissolved bicarbonate.

3. (countable) An atom of this element, in reference to a molecule containing it.

   A methane molecule is made up of a single carbon with four hydrogens.

4. (countable, informal) A sheet of carbon paper.
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 51:

     He stepped back and opened his bag and took out a printed pad of D.O.A. forms and began to write over a carbon.

5. (countable, informal) A carbon copy.

   Please provide me with a carbon of your form.

   Press firmly: you are making a carbon.

6. A fossil fuel that is made of impure carbon such as coal or charcoal.
7. Soot.

   Every morning she cleaned the carbon from the lamp chimneys.

   1. Especially, hardened soot as a caked-on deposit.

      When you overhaul an engine, you need to remove the carbon from around the valve seats. The carbon buildup can be extensive.

8. (ecology, climate change, uncountable) Ellipsis of carbon dioxide.

   carbon neutral

   carbon capture

   • 2014 April 25, Martin Lukacs, “Canada becoming launch-pad of a global tar sands and oil shale frenzy”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 190, number 20, page 13:

     If Alberta’s reserves are a carbon bomb, this global expansion of tar sands and oil shale exploitation amounts to an escalating emissions arms race, the unlocking of a subterranean cache of weapons of mass ecological destruction.

9. A carbon rod or pencil used in an arc lamp.
   • 1892, English Mechanic and World of Science, page 444:

     To trim an arc lamp, first remove the old carbons and carefully and thoroughly wipe the carbon rods, holders, &c. with a clean, dry rag.

10. A plate or piece of carbon used as one of the elements of a voltaic battery.
11. (informal) Ellipsis of carbon fiber (reinforced polymer).

    carbon bike frame

• → Bengali: কার্বন (karbon)
• → Malay: karbon
• → Navajo: káábin
• → Welsh: carbon

carbon (third-person singular simple present carbons, present participle carboning, simple past and past participle carboned)

1. (Internet, transitive, uncommon) To send a carbon copy of an email message to.

   Synonyms: cc, copy

   When I send it, I’ll carbon Julia so she’s aware.

• carbon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Carbon on the British Royal Society of Chemistry's online periodic table

• Branco, bancor, corban

• karbon (rare, but now official)

• IPA^(key): [ˈkʰɑːb̥ʌn]

carbon n (singular definite carbonet, not used in plural form)

1. (chemistry) carbon

   Synonym: kulstof

While kul (“coal”) is never used to refer to the element of carbon, it may sometimes replace it in names of derivations, such as kuldioxid/carbondioxid, kulsyre, kulilte/carbonmonoxid.

• “carbon” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “Karbon” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

• IPA^(key): /kɑrˈbɔn/
• Hyphenation: car‧bon
• Rhymes: -ɔn

Probably borrowed from French carbone, ultimately from Latin carbō. The sense “fibre-reinforced polymer” derived from English carbon.

carbon n (uncountable, diminutive carbonnetje n)

1. fibre-reinforced polymer
2. black diamond

From carbonpapier.

carbon n (uncountable, diminutive carbonnetje n)

1. carbon paper

Borrowed from French carbone, coined by Lavoisier, from Latin carbō, carbōnem (“charcoal, coal”), from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to burn”). Doublet of cărbune.

• IPA^(key): /karˈbon/
• Hyphenation: car‧bon

carbon n (uncountable)

1. carbon (chemical element)

• “carbon”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

• càrbon

From Latin carbō, carbōnem.

carbon m (genitive singular carboin, no plural)

1. carbon (element)

   Synonym: gualan

• carbon dà-ogsaid

Borrowed from English carbon, from French carbone from Latin carbō, carbōnem (“charcoal, coal”), from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“to burn”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkarbɔn/
• Rhymes: -arbɔn

carbon m (plural carbonau)

1. carbon

   Synonym: (obsolete) ulyfai

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “carbon”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies