noun
petroleum
puh-TROH-lee-uhm/pəˈtrəʊliəm/
Naturally occurring oil used to make fuels and chemicals.
Thick petroleum seeps from a fissure in the exposed rock.
Etymology
Petroleum literally means “rock oil”: the name describes an oily, flammable substance occurring naturally in rock beds. It names the raw material from which fuels and other products are refined.
In context
when you heat up petroleum all its various components evaporate out at different temperatures and then they could recondense them into liquid forms extracting many products from the one most of them being useful solvents
More examples
- The company drills deep underground to extract petroleum.
- Many plastics are made from chemicals derived from petroleum.
- The tanker carries petroleum from the oil field to the refinery.
Similar words
- oil
- Broader term that also includes vegetable and animal oils.
- crude oil
- Explicitly identifies petroleum in its raw state before refining.