HYDROGEN CYANIDE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hydrogen cyanide mean? 

• HYDROGEN CYANIDE (noun)
  The noun HYDROGEN CYANIDE has 1 sense:

1. a highly poisonous gas or volatile liquid that smells like bitter almonds; becomes a gas at around 90 degree Fahrenheit and is most dangerous when inhaled; the anhydride of hydrocyanic acid; used in manufacturing

  Familiarity information: HYDROGEN CYANIDE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HYDROGEN CYANIDE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A highly poisonous gas or volatile liquid that smells like bitter almonds; becomes a gas at around 90 degree Fahrenheit and is most dangerous when inhaled; the anhydride of hydrocyanic acid; used in manufacturing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("hydrogen cyanide" is a kind of...):

chemical compound; compound ((chemistry) a substance formed by chemical union of two or more elements or ingredients in definite proportion by weight)

 Context examples 

Delicate clouds made from cyanoacetylene and hydrogen cyanide, which form from reactions of methane byproducts with nitrogen molecules, also have been found there.

(NASA Finds Methane Ice Cloud in Titan's Stratosphere, NASA)

They performed a series of laboratory experiments to measure how quickly the building blocks of life can be formed from hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulphite ions in water when exposed to UV light.

(Scientists identify exoplanets where life could develop as it did on Earth, University of Cambridge)

Previously, CIRS data helped identify hydrogen cyanide ice in clouds over Titan's south pole, as well as other toxic chemicals in the moon's stratosphere.

(NASA Team Finds Noxious Ice Cloud on Saturn’s Moon Titan, NASA)

Among them are known or suspected toxicants, carcinogens and respiratory irritants, including nicotine, ammonia, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide, acrolein, hydrogen cyanide, phenol, nitrogen oxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, N-Nitrosamines and radionuclides.

(Environmental tobacco smoke, NCI Thesaurus)

In this hypothesis, carbon from meteorites that slammed into the young Earth interacted with nitrogen in the atmosphere to form hydrogen cyanide.

(Scientists identify exoplanets where life could develop as it did on Earth, University of Cambridge)

The experiments determined that the exotic ice in the cloud is a combination of the simple organic molecule hydrogen cyanide together with the large ring-shaped chemical benzene.

(NASA Team Finds Noxious Ice Cloud on Saturn’s Moon Titan, NASA)

The hydrogen cyanide rained to the surface, where it interacted with other elements in various ways, powered by the UV light from the sun.

(Scientists identify exoplanets where life could develop as it did on Earth, University of Cambridge)

The same experiment run in the dark with the hydrogen cyanide and the hydrogen sulphite resulted in an inert compound which could not be used to form the building blocks of life, while the experiment performed under the lights did result in the necessary building blocks.

(Scientists identify exoplanets where life could develop as it did on Earth, University of Cambridge)