bitumen
/ˈbɪt.jʊ.mɪn/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Canada/ˈbɪt͡ʃ.ʊ.mɪn/
bitumen noun: a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum, burning with a bright flame. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc.; Mineral pitch.
Noun
bitumen (countable and uncountable, plural bitumina or bitumens)
- A sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum, burning with a bright flame. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc.; Mineral pitch.
- You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore. Follow this with a layer of compacted "hoggin" – compacted clay, gravel and sand. This is then sprayed with hot bitumen, and has a layer of pea shingle rolled into it.2014 August 24, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: gravel paths and cutting heating bills [print version: Cold comfort in technology, 23 August 2014, p. P5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property)
- Synonyms:
- Jew's pitch, bitume, Jew’s lime, Jew’s pitch, Jew’s slime, slime
- Any one of the natural hydrocarbons, including the hard, solid, brittle varieties called asphalt, the semisolid maltha and mineral tars, the oily petrolea, and even the light, volatile naphthas.
- Roads sealed with bitumen, as opposed to dirt roads.
- Canadian deposits of extremely heavy crude oil.
Verb
bitumen (third-person singular simple present bitumens, present participle bitumening, simple past and past participle bitumened)
- To cover or fill with bitumen.
- another star reflected itself in the glassy black of the bitumened road1926, Rudyard Kipling, “The Prophet and the Country”, in Debits and Credits, →OCLC, page 155
- The Litlata community have now built a mandi set in a pleasant garden, and to ensure the cleanliness of their yardna have bricked and bitumened the pool into which the water flows1937, Lady Ethel Stefana Drower, Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, Brill Archive, →LCCN, page 122
- Synonyms:
- bituminize
bitumen meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
bitumen in Tamil
- தார், கட்டித்தார், பெட்ரோலிய வண்டல், பிச்சுக்கட்டி, பிற்றுமின், நிலக்கீல்
bitumen in Urdu
- قیر, رال
bitumen in Bengali
- Mineral pitch
- শিলাজতু śilajôtu
bitumen in Malayalam
- bitumen
- അഗജം agajaṁ
More languagesFewer languages
- bitumen in Thai
- ยางมะตอย yaang-má-dtɔi
Examples of bitumen in a sentence
- Work is already under way to complete the bitumening of Western Australia's last unsurfaced stretch of Highway One, between Fitzroy Crossing and Hall's Creek.1984, Dennis Hancock, Wheels of Progress: History of the Road Transport Industry in Western Australia, 1829-1983, Access Press, →ISBN, page...
- The development of water reticulation occurred in parallel with street work — forming, kerbing, channelling and bitumening.2013, Janice Cooper, Crossing the Divide: A History of Alpha and Jericho Districts, Boolarong Press, →ISBN, page 176:
Synonyms of bitumen
- Jew's pitch
- Jew’s lime
- Jew’s pitch
- Jew’s slime
- bituminize
- bitume
- slime
Forms of bitumen
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bitumina |
| plural | bitumens |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bitumens |
| present participle | bitumening |
| past participle | bitumened |
| past | bitumened |
Origin of bitumen
From Middle English bithumen, bitumen, from Latin bitūmen. Doublet of bitume.
Words formed from bitumen
Questions about bitumen
- What does bitumen mean?
- Bitumen means a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum, burning with a bright flame. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc.; Mineral pitch.
- What is bitumen in Tamil?
- Bitumen in Tamil is தார், கட்டித்தார், பெட்ரோலிய வண்டல். See Bitumen meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use bitumen in a sentence?
- Work is already under way to complete the bitumening of Western Australia's last unsurfaced stretch of Highway One, between Fitzroy Crossing and Hall's Creek.
- What part of speech is bitumen?
- Bitumen can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce bitumen?
- Bitumen is pronounced /ˈbɪt.jʊ.mɪn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of bitumen?
- The plural of bitumen is bitumina.
Words near bitumen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bitumen (page history and authors); bitumen (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bitumen (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); അഗജം (Malayalam) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-bitumen.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-bitumen.wav.
Cite this entry: “bitumen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bitumen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.