fuel oil

American

noun

an oil used for fuel, especially one used as a substitute for coal, as crude petroleum.

fuel oil British

noun

a liquid petroleum product having a flash point above 37.8°C: used as a substitute for coal in industrial furnaces, domestic heaters, ships, and locomotives

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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fuel oil

Myanmar imports 90 percent of its fuel oil, official figures show, making it particularly vulnerable to supply issues caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2026

About half of Maine households rely on fuel oil to heat their homes, and filling a standard 275-gallon tank costs about $750 more than it did a year ago.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026

Nationally, gas prices were up 34% over the past year, and fuel oil prices were up 74% in September, according to the Labor Department.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

As the summer draws to a close, families who rely on fuel oil to heat their homes are facing a dilemma.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

We spent weeks at the huge Shell Haven Refinery with a special instructor who taught us all about fuel oil and diesel oil and gas oil and lubricating oil and kerosene and gasoline.

From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023