GREENHOUSE GAS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does greenhouse gas mean? 

• GREENHOUSE GAS (noun)
  The noun GREENHOUSE GAS has 1 sense:

1. a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation

  Familiarity information: GREENHOUSE GAS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GREENHOUSE GAS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

greenhouse emission; greenhouse gas

Hypernyms ("greenhouse gas" is a kind of...):

gas (a fluid in the gaseous state having neither independent shape nor volume and being able to expand indefinitely)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "greenhouse gas"):

CFC; chlorofluorocarbon (a fluorocarbon with chlorine; formerly used as a refrigerant and as a propellant in aerosol cans)

carbon dioxide; carbonic acid gas; CO2 (a heavy odorless colorless gas formed during respiration and by the decomposition of organic substances; absorbed from the air by plants in photosynthesis)

HFC; hydrofluorocarbon (a fluorocarbon emitted as a by-product of industrial manufacturing)

perfluorocarbon; PFC (a powerful greenhouse gas emitted during the production of aluminum)

sulfur hexafluoride; sulphur hexafluoride (a colorless gas that is soluble in alcohol and ether; a powerful greenhouse gas widely used in the electrical utility industry)

 Context examples 

In this way OH is the main check on the concentration of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is second only to carbon dioxide in contributing to increasing global temperatures.

(Greenhouse Gas ‘Detergent’ Recycles Itself in Atmosphere, NASA)

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has concluded that bacteria in a lake 800 meters (2,600 feet) beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may digest methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, preventing its release into the atmosphere.

(Methane-eating bacteria in lake deep beneath Antarctic ice sheet may reduce greenhouse gas emissions, National Science Foundation)

The study’s predictions are based on an assumption that there is no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and that no improvements take place to curb the effects of climate change.

(Study: Climate Change Will Bring 50-Fold Rise in Europe Weather-related Deaths, VOA News)

The process helps keep this greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere.

(Major deep carbon sink linked to microbes at volcanic island chains, National Science Foundation)

While electric vehicles offer many advantages—including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the country's dependence on imported petroleum—at least one barrier stands in the way of their large-scale adoption: range anxiety.

(New, high-energy rechargeable batteries, NSF)

This is important because methane is the third most common greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, after water vapor and carbon dioxide.

(Alaska Shows No Signs of Rising Arctic Methane, NASA)

The cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines masked the full impact of greenhouse gases on accelerating sea level rise, according to a new study.

(Volcanic eruption masked acceleration in sea level rise, NSF)

An odorless, colorless, flammable gas that acts as a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and is produced by a variety of natural sources.

(Methane, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

An increase in temperature that occurs globally such as the interglacial warming period the earth experienced after the last Ice Age, or that predicted to result from human increases in greenhouse gases.

(Global warming, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

Unlike greenhouse gases, which contribute to warming, these fine particles can have a cooling effect.

(Estimating how pollen particles in the atmosphere influence climate, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)