bitumen
Americannoun
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any of various natural substances, as asphalt, maltha, or gilsonite, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons.
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(formerly) an asphalt of Asia Minor used as cement and mortar.
noun
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any of various viscous or solid impure mixtures of hydrocarbons that occur naturally in asphalt, tar, mineral waxes, etc: used as a road surfacing and roofing material
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the constituents of coal that can be extracted by an organic solvent
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any liquid suitable for coating aggregates
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informal any road with a bitumen surface
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informal (capital) the road in the Northern Territory between Darwin and Alice Springs
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a transparent brown pigment or glaze made from asphalt
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bitumen
1425–75; late Middle English bithumen < Latin bitūmen
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bitumen mining, which started in 1967, contributes around a third of Canada's 4.9 million barrels a day of oil production.
From Reuters • Apr. 27, 2023
Bitumen is too thick to be pumped through a pipeline, so it has to be mixed with other hydrocarbons to thin it out, producing diluted bitumen.
From The Guardian • Aug. 30, 2018
Bitumen, a cover-all term, was prized for its tawny glow, but the popularity of the pigment had much to do with the nineteenth-century taste for the Oriental macabre.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 27, 2018
Bitumen is one of the most energy-intensive oils to produce, and carbon-polluting to burn.
From Seattle Times • May 29, 2018
On the way, they visited all the sandy bays of the coast to look for "munjack," "a sort of Pitch or Bitumen which we find in Lumps."
From On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. by Masefield, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
