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fossil fuels

Cultural  

  1. Coal, petroleum, and natural gas.

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All fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide when burned. (See greenhouse effect.)

Burning fossil fuels is a main cause of air pollution.

All of these fuels were formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.

Example Sentences

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The coke is, in fact, a kind of coal and is often burned in the dirtiest fossil fuel's stead.

From Scientific American • Jan. 23, 2013

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.