adamantane

[ ad-uh-man-teyn ]

noun

, Chemistry.

1. a white crystalline alicyclic hydrocarbon, C 10 H 16 , consisting of four fused cyclohexane rings, with the carbon atoms arranged as in the diamond lattice.

Word History and Origins

Origin of adamantane¹

< French; adamant, -ane; so called from the diamondlike arrangement of the carbon atoms