sulfur

CEFRB2

/ˈsʌl.fə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A yellow chemical element with a strong smell when burned.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A yellowish green colour, like that of sulfur.

Examples

  • Hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, sulfur and selenium are nonmetals.

  • Sulfur burns with a blue flame.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A chemical element with atomic number 16, having a bright yellow color and characteristic smell, used commercially in a variety of products such as insecticides, black powder, and matchsticks.

  2. The element symbolically associated with hellfire or damnation, or in alchemy, the fiery principle present in all things.

  3. Any of various pierid butterflies of the subfamily Coliadinae, especially the sulfur-coloured species.

More examples

In context

  • Sulfur is used to make matches.

  • A Dungeon horrible, on all ſides round / As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from thoſe flames / No light, but rather darkneſs viſible / […] but torture without end / Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed / With ever-burning Sulphur unconſum’d:

  • “She shall be blasted like a riven oak! Drowned in sulphur! Torn by whirlwinds!”

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The chemist carefully handled a sample of bright yellow blank in the laboratory.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English sulphur, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sulfre, from Latin sulfur, from sulpur itself of uncertain origin. Displaced Old English swefl and largely displaced brimstone.