Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Paraffin |
ParaffinNoun1. From crude petroleum; used for candles and for preservative or waterproof coatings. 2. A non-aromatic saturated hydrocarbon with the general formula CnH(2n+2). 3. British usage. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "paraffin" was first used: 1838. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Chemical Industry | Is a hydrocarbon extracted from certain distillates of petroleum oils or of oils obtained from shale or other bituminous minerals. Source: European Union. (references) |
Health | A mixture of solid hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum. It has a wide range of uses including as a stiffening agent in ointments, as a lubricant, and as a topical anti-inflammatory. It is also commonly used as an embedding material in histology. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
It is a petroleum product that is primarily used for candlemaking, and coatings for waxed paper or cloth.
It is mostly found as a white, odorless, tasteless, waxy solid, with a melting point between 47°C and 65°C. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in ether, benzene, and certain esters. Paraffin is unaffected by most common chemical reagents but oxidizes readily.
In the United Kingdom, the fuel known elsewhere as kerosene is called paraffin, and the solid forms of paraffin are called paraffin wax.
See also: aliphatic hydrocarbon.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Paraffin."
Synonyms: ParaffinSynonyms: alkane (n), alkane series (n), methane series (n), paraffin oil (n), paraffin wax (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Calefaction | Coke, carbon, charcoal; wood alcohol, turpentine, tea tree oil; gasoline, kerosene, naptha, fuel oil (fuel); wax, paraffin; residue, tar. |
Fuel | Wax, paraffin wax, paraffin oil; lamp oil, whale oil. |
Oil | Noun: oil, fat, butter, cream, grease, tallow, suet, lard, dripping exunge, blubber; glycerin, stearin, elaine, oleagine; soap; soft soap, wax, cerement; paraffin, spermaceti, adipocere; petroleum, mineral, mineral rock, mineral crystal, mineral oil; vegetable oil, colza oil, olive oil, salad oil, linseed oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, nut oil; animal oil, neat's foot oil, train oil; ointment, unguent, liniment; aceite, amole, Barbados tar; fusel oil, grain oil, rape oil, seneca oil; hydrate |
Physical Inertness | Rare gas, paraffin, noble metal, unreactivity. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Title |
References | |
Books | |
Consumer Goods |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Physical Therapy Department, Deshon General Hospital, Butler, Pennsylvania : Paraffin bath used in the treatment of hand injuries.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | The bobbins are saturated in hot paraffin wax. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Paraffin blocks are preferred, particularly if death was not recent. (references) | |
Ship paraffin blocks or formalin-fixed tissue at room temperature--do not freeze. (references) | ||
Business | Motor oils are obtained from paraffinous crude oils selected through solvent treatment, paraffin removal and catalytic dewaxing. (references) | |
Kazakhstani oil has high viscosity and high paraffin content, and the Caspian Basin's oil bearing formations are quite deep (15,000 feet), under considerable pressure, and often contain a high degree of sulfur and other contaminants. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Paraffin" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.74% of the time. "Paraffin" is used about 239 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.74% | 236 | 19,516 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.84% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (common) | 0.42% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 239 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "paraffin": native paraffin ♦ Paraffin Embedding ♦ paraffin lamp ♦ paraffin little affinity series ♦ paraffin oil ♦ paraffin scale ♦ paraffin series ♦ paraffin stove ♦ paraffin wax ♦ paraffin waxes ♦ solid paraffin. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "paraffin": paraffin-burning, paraffin-filled, paraffin-fumed, paraffin-lamps. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
paraffin wax | 140 |
paraffin | 135 |
paraffin bath | 31 |
paraffin candle | 20 |
paraffin spa | 17 |
liquid paraffin | 13 |
paraffin oil | 12 |
paraffin treatment | 8 |
paraffin wax treatment | 6 |
microwave paraffin | 6 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "paraffin"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | parafinoj, parafine, parafinë (wax), vajguri (coal oil, kerosene, mineral oil, naphtha, oil, petroleum, refined petroleum, rock oil). (various references) | |
Arabic | نفط منزلي, البارافين, دهن لصنع الشموع, دهن بالبرافين, برفن. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | керосин (kerosene, petroleum), потапям в парафин, покривам с парафин, парафинов, парафин. (various references) | |
Catalan | petroli (paraffin-oil, petroleum). (various references) | |
Chinese | 石蜡. (various references) | |
Czech | parafín. (various references) | |
Danish | paraffin. (various references) | |
Dutch | paraffine (paraffin waxes). (various references) | |
Esperanto | parafino. (various references) | |
Faeroese | steinolja (paraffin-oil, petroleum), olja (oil, paraffin-oil, petroleum). (various references) | |
Farsi | پارافین(ش.). (various references) | |
Finnish | parafiiniöljy (paraffin oil). (various references) | |
French | paraffine (paraffin wax). (various references) | |
Frisian | petroalje (paraffin-oil, petroleum). (various references) | |
German | paraffin. (various references) | |
Greek | παραφίνη. (various references) | |
Hebrew | קרוסין (kerosene), פרפין. (various references) | |
Hungarian | paraffin (paraffine), petróleum (kerosene, paraffine, paraffiny, petroleum, rock-tar). (various references) | |
Italian | paraffina. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 石蝋 , パラチフス菌 (clattering, falling indrops, flipping through a book, paradox, paradoxical, paranoia, paratyphoid bacillus, pattering, sprinkle). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | パラフィン , せきろう. (various references) | |
Korean | 파라핀. (various references) | |
Manx | parafeen, ooill gheayil. (various references) | |
Norwegian | parafin (kerosene, paraffin-oil, petroleum). (various references) | |
Papiamen | petroleo (paraffin-oil, petroleum), zeta (oil, paraffin-oil, petroleum). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | araffinpay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | parafina. (various references) | |
Romanian | petrol lampant (kerosene), parafinã, ulei de parafinã, gaz (gas, gauze, gossamer, petroleum). (various references) | |
Russian | керосиновый, парафин торговый, парафин (wax). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | parafinski, parafin. (various references) | |
Spanish | parafina (paraffin wax). (various references) | |
Sranan | karsinoli (paraffin-oil, petroleum). (various references) | |
Swedish | paraffin (paraffin wax), fotogen (coal oil, kerosene, paraffin oil, paraffin-oil, petroleum). (various references) | |
Turkish | parafin uygulamak (paraffine), parafin (kerosene, kerosine, paraffine). (various references) | |
Ukranian | гас (kerosene), покривати парафіном, парафін (wax). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | dầu parafin (paraffin oil). (various references) | |
Welsh | paraffin. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | parum. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "paraffin": paraffined, paraffinic, paraffining, paraffins. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "paraffin": cycloparaffin, nitroparaffin. (additional references) | |
Words containing "paraffin": cycloparaffins, nitroparaffins. (additional references) | |
| |
"Paraffin" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Arffin, Ariffin, Arifin, baruffini, carafino, Maraffi, paraffins, parafil, parafin, parifin, parrafin, Qadaffi, Sarafina. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "paraffin" (pronounced pe"rufun) |
| 4 | -u f u n | acetaminophen, tamoxifen. |
| 3 | -f u n | deafen, dolphin, endorphin, Griffon, hyphen, ibuprofen, morphin, muffin, often, orphan, siphon, soften, stiffen, syphon, toughen. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-f-f-i-n-p-r" | |
-2 letters: affair, farina, parian, pirana, raffia. | |
-3 letters: apian, infra, naira. | |
-4 letters: afar, airn, aria, fain, fair, fiar, firn, frap, naif, nipa, pain, pair, para, pian, pina, pirn, raff, raia, rain, rani, riff. | |
-5 letters: aff, ain, air, ana, ani, arf, fan, far, fin, fir, iff, nap, nip, pan, par, pia, pin, ran, rap, ria, rif, rin, rip. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-f-f-i-n-p-r" | |
+1 letter: paraffins. | |
+2 letters: paraffined, paraffinic. | |
+3 letters: paraffining. | |
+5 letters: cycloparaffin, nitroparaffin. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 61 72 61 66 66 69 6E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .- .-. .- ..-. ..-. .. -. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01100110 01100110 01101001 01101110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P a r a f f i n |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0061 0072 0061 0066 0066 0069 006E |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5067846772727580 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
