ozone
[oh-zohn, oh-zohn]
noun
a form of oxygen, O3, with a peculiar odor suggesting that of weak chlorine, produced when an electric spark or ultraviolet light is passed through air or oxygen. It is found in the atmosphere in minute quantities, especially after a thunderstorm, is a powerful oxidizing agent, and is thus biologically corrosive. In the upper atmosphere, it absorbs ultraviolet rays, thereby preventing them from reaching the surface of the earth. It is used for bleaching, sterilizing water, etc.
Origin of ozone
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for ozones
breath, breeze, wind, firmament, heaven, blast, whiff, sky, waft, draft, puff, zephyr, ventilation, stratosphere, troposphere, heavens, ozonosphereozone
noun
Word Origin for ozone
C19: from German Ozon, from Greek: smell
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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ozone
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
ozone
[ō′zōn′]
n.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
ozone
[ō′zōn′]
A Closer Look: Ozone is both beneficial for and threatening to all of Earth's organisms, including human beings, depending on how high in the atmosphere it is found. Ozone is naturally produced in the stratospheric portion of Earth's atmosphere (in the ozone layer) by the action of high-energy ultraviolet radiation on molecular oxygen (O2 ). By absorbing much of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation, the ozone layer serves as a sunscreen for organisms on Earth. In recent years the ozone has thinned or disappeared in parts of the ozone layer, creating an ozone hole that lets in dangerous amounts of ultraviolet radiation. Ozone holes are caused in part by the release into the atmosphere of industrial and commercial chemicals, in particular the chlorofluorocarbons (such as freon) used in aerosols, refrigerants, and certain cleaning solvents. Closer to Earth's surface, ozone is one of the so-called greenhouse gases that are produced by the burning of fossil fuels and cause the greenhouse effect. Ozone at ground level is also an air pollutant, contributing to respiratory diseases such as asthma.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.