Phosphate Meaning
/ˈfɒsfeɪt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny salt or ester of phosphoric acid.
nounAny fertiliser containing phosphate compounds.
Sentence Examples
Tomatoes like a little phosphate.
Earnings from Nauru's export of phosphate remains an important source of income.
Alveolar bone has a high mineral content, mainly calcium and phosphate.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Farmers add ____ to the soil to help plants grow because it provides essential nutrients.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The fertilizer contained high levels of ____ to promote root development in the young plants.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂os Proto-Hellenic *pʰáwos Ancient Greek φᾰ́ος (phắos) Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs) Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti Proto-Hellenic *pʰérō Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō) Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Hellenic *-os Ancient Greek -ος (-os) Ancient Greek -φόρος (-phóros) Ancient Greek φωσφόρος (phōsphóros)bor. Latin phōsphorusder. French phosphore French -ate French phosphateder. English phosphate From French phosphate. By surface analysis, phosphoric acid + -ate (“salt or ester”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Make sure you don’t use detergents with phosphates or nonylphenol ethoxylate surfactants, but that information is rarely available on the labels."
— 2009 February 26, Julie Scelfo, “When It Comes to Detergents, What’s the Least Irresponsible Choice?”, in The New York Times:
"Bony fishes were judicious in their use of phosphate as a building material: their teeth, a few parts of the skeleton, and that was it."
— 2022 November 4, Natalie Angier, “The Sad Fate of the Ancient, Well-Shelled Mariners”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Nov 2022:
"An egg phosphate is a phosphate to which an egg has been added in the proper manner. While an egg phosphate can be flavored with any syrup that makes a good phosphate, still the standard flavor by long usage has com to be orange […]"
— 1920, Irving P. Fox, The Spatula, page 27:
"“This man here,” she said, “can make you a cherry Coke or a chocolate Coke or a phosphate — a chocolate phosphate or. “Vanilla phosphate,” the man helped, “cherry phosphate, orange phosphate, lime phosphate, lemon phosphate,"
— 2002, Michael Raleigh, In the castle of the Flynns, page 180:
"You order California burgers for us both, even though I don't eat lettuce or tomato, then you order me a phosphate, cherry, a dreadful fizzy drink you say you always loved. It's bitter, bubbly, unbearable; but, thirsty for your past, force myself to drink it."
— 2008, Kathryn Kysar, Riding shotgun: women write about their mothers, page 106:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Farmers add ____ to the soil to help plants grow because it provides essential nutrients.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The fertilizer contained high levels of ____ to promote root development in the young plants.