ammonia
a colorless, pungent, suffocating, highly water-soluble, gaseous compound, NH3, usually produced by the direct combination of nitrogen and hydrogen gases: used chiefly for refrigeration and in the manufacture of commercial chemicals and laboratory reagents.
Also called aqueous ammonia, ammonia solution, ammonia water . this gas dissolved in water; ammonium hydroxide.
Compare Meanings
Click for a side-by-side comparison of meanings. Use the word comparison feature to learn the differences between similar and commonly confused words.
Origin of ammonia
1Words Nearby ammonia
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use ammonia in a sentence
Another option is to convert renewable electricity into some other form of relatively clean energy, such as hydrogen, ethanol, or ammonia.
Facebook A.I. researchers push for a breakthrough in renewable energy storage | Jeremy Kahn | October 14, 2020 | FortuneSince ammonia is toxic to humans, such leaks require immediate action, involving lengthy spacewalks to identify holes in the coolant system and repair them.
Astronauts on the ISS are hunting for the source of another mystery air leak | Neel Patel | September 30, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewThe ISS has previously dealt with ammonia leaks coming from the station’s cooling loops.
Astronauts on the ISS are hunting for the source of another mystery air leak | Neel Patel | September 30, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewJain’s discovery could allow workers to transport ammonia instead, which is safer, and then free the hydrogen from the ammonia once it has arrived where’s it needed.
This year’s SN 10 scientists aim to solve some of science’s biggest challenges | Science News Staff | September 30, 2020 | Science NewsIt turns out there was an ammonia feed going into the tap water, and when they turned it off, the phone stopped ringing.
Erin Brockovich has given up on the federal government saving the environment | Nicole Goodkind | September 25, 2020 | Fortune
Is she back in the orphanage where it smells like ammonia and cooked cabbage?
The plant was checked out only when the state agency received a complaint about a strong ammonia smell.
They Saw It Coming: Life in West, Texas, After the Boom | Christine Pelisek | April 22, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHe instinctively knew it was coming from the 50-year-old fertilizer plant and ammonia storage facility a few blocks away.
They Saw It Coming: Life in West, Texas, After the Boom | Christine Pelisek | April 22, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTIt runs on combustible poison—ammonia and pressurized hydrogen.
American Dreams: ‘The Mosquito Coast’ by Paul Theroux | Nathaniel Rich | September 20, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTBut the ammonia leak in November, and now the radiation leak and deteriorating tubes, might lead some to conclude otherwise.
Latest Accident at San Onofre Nuclear Plant Worries Activists, Residents | Jamie Reno | February 13, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThey are dissolved by strong hydrochloric acid, and recrystallize as octahedra upon addition of ammonia.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddOn the other side the ammonia brought out a picture of the Victory, with the head of a roaring lion below it.
Uncanny Tales | VariousHis results for ammonia, as well as nitric acid, are given in the subjoined table.
Elements of Agricultural Chemistry | Thomas Andersonammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, but it cannot be formed by the direct union of these gases.
Elements of Agricultural Chemistry | Thomas AndersonIt appears also, as far as absorption goes, to be immaterial whether the ammonia is free or combined.
Elements of Agricultural Chemistry | Thomas Anderson
British Dictionary definitions for ammonia
/ (əˈməʊnɪə, -njə) /
a colourless pungent highly soluble gas mainly used in the manufacture of fertilizers, nitric acid, and other nitrogenous compounds, and as a refrigerant and solvent. Formula: NH 3
a solution of ammonia in water, containing the compound ammonium hydroxide
Origin of ammonia
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for ammonia
[ ə-mōn′yə ]
A colorless alkaline gas that is lighter than air and has a strongly pungent odor. It is used as a fertilizer and refrigerant, in medicine, and in making dyes, textiles, plastics, and explosives. Chemical formula: NH3.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Browse