phlogiston
Americannoun
noun
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A hypothetical colorless, odorless, weightless substance once believed to be the combustible part of all flammable substances and to be given off as flame during burning. In the 18th century, Antoine Lavoisier proved that phlogiston does not exist.
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See Note at Lavoisier
Etymology
Origin of phlogiston
1720–30; < New Latin: inflammability, noun use of Greek phlogistón, neuter of phlogistós inflammable, burnt up; see phlogistic
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.
Hence, Charles Darwin is a household name, but few know of Georg Ernst Stahl, promoter of the long-discredited phlogiston theory of chemistry.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2019
Heliocentrism beats geocentrism, oxidation-reduction chemistry beats phlogiston, Einstein over Newton, plate tectonics, etc.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 4, 2017
Chemistry would not have improved much since Lavoisier's youth if chemists were still loosely calling all combustible materials phlogiston.
From Time Magazine Archive
One day we may discover that some of our most cherished forms of knowledge are as obsolete as epicycles, phlogiston, caloric, the electromagnetic aether and, indeed, Newtonian physics.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The experiment was tried: a gas was produced which had no action on limewater and which was very inflammable; what could this be but phlogiston, already recognized by this very property of extreme inflammability?
From Heroes of Science Chemists by Muir, M. M. Pattison (Matthew Moncrieff Pattison)
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.
