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Definition of "anthracene" [an•thra•cene]

  • A crystalline hydrocarbon, C14H10, extracted from coal tar and used in the manufacture of dyes and organic chemicals. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "anthracene" in a sentence
  • "From this tar are produced a pound of benzine, a pound of toluene, a pound and a half of phenol, six pounds of naphthalene, a small quantity of a material called xylene and half a pound of anthracene, which is used in dyeing."
  • "The propose the work as proof-of-concept, but use a very artificial data set of only 12 crystal structures benzene and eleven polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, like naphtalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, triphenylene, pyrene, perylene, and coronene."
  • "He couldn't have known about the anthracene, but he must have guessed that a trap so complicated in some respects wasn't likely to be naive in others."