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CYANIDE
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An extremely poisonous salt of hydrocyanic acid
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("cyanide" is a kind of...):
salt (a compound formed by replacing hydrogen in an acid by a metal (or a radical that acts like a metal))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cyanide"):
sodium cyanide (a white poisonous salt (NaCN) used in electroplating)
potassium cyanide (a poisonous salt (KCN) used in electroplating and in photography)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Any of a class of organic compounds containing the cyano radical -CN
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting substances
Hypernyms ("cyanide" is a kind of...):
organic compound (any compound of carbon and another element or a radical)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cyanide"):
acrylonitrile; propenonitrile; vinyl cyanide (a colorless liquid unsaturated nitrile made from propene)
Context examples:
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)
Cyanide and benzaldehyde are metabolites of both laetrile and amygdalin.
(Laetrile, NCI Thesaurus)
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)
Exposure to cyanide may cause serious health effects, including death.
(Cyanide, NCI Dictionary)
Cyanide has been found in meteorites before.
(Cyanide Compounds Discovered in Meteorites May Hold Clues to the Origin of Life, 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)
On Earth, acrylonitrile, also known as vinyl cyanide, is useful in the manufacture of plastics.
(NASA Finds Moon of Saturn Has Chemical That Could Form ‘Membranes’, NASA)
However, in the new work, they were surprised to discover that cyanide, along with carbon monoxide (CO), were binding with iron to form stable compounds in the meteorites.
(Cyanide Compounds Discovered in Meteorites May Hold Clues to the Origin of Life, NASA)
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)
Other types of meteorites tested, including a Martian meteorite, contained no cyanide.
(Cyanide Compounds Discovered in Meteorites May Hold Clues to the Origin of Life, NASA)