olefin

American Heritage Dictionary:

o·le·fin

(ō'lə-fĭn) pronunciation

n.
Any of a class of unsaturated open-chain hydrocarbons such as ethylene, having the general formula C_nH₂_n; an alkene with only one carbon-carbon double bond.

[French (gaz) oléfiant, oil-forming (gas), ethylene : Latin oleum, oil; see oil + French -fiant, present participle of -fier, -fy.]

olefinic o'le·fin'ic adj.

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olefin

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Any unsaturated hydrocarbon containing one or more pairs of carbon atoms linked by a double bond (see covalent bond, saturation). Olefins may be classified by whether the double bond is in a ring (cyclic) or a chain (acyclic, or aliphatic) or by the number of double bonds (monoolefin, diolefin, etc.). Rare in nature, olefins are obtained by the cracking of petroleum fractions at high temperatures. The simplest ones (ethylene, propylene, butylene, butadiene, and isoprene) are the basis of the petrochemicals industry. They react by adding other chemical agents at the double bond to form derivatives or polymers.

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McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction:

olefin

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A lightweight, high-strength, long-chain polymeric material having very good abrasion resistance; especially used in indoor-outdoor carpeting.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary:

o·le·fin

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(ō'lə-fĭn)
n.

Any of a group of unsaturated open chain hydrocarbons possessing one or more double bonds, the simplest of which is ethylene.

Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry:

olefin

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an older name for an alkene.
—olefinic adj.

Previous:	oleate, oleandrose, old yellow enzyme
Next:	oleic family, olein, oleo

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		American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary. The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Read more
		Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry. Oxford University Press. Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology © 1997, 2000, 2006 All rights reserved. Read more

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