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black carbon

black carbon noun: elemental carbon in the form of very fine graphite particulates, a major component of soot.

Noun

black carbon (uncountable)

  1. Elemental carbon in the form of very fine graphite particulates, a major component of soot.
    • Carbonaceous particles in the atmosphere consist of two major components — graphitic or black carbon and organic material.1980, T. Novakov, Soot in the Atmosphere, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Report LBL-11676, page 1
    • Black carbon is the sooty material ejected from diesel engines in their exhaust gases. RSSB notes that it can cause lung diseases. Nitrogen dioxide is also a product of burning diesel and can effect people's lungs.2021 October 6, Philip Haigh, “Pollutants and air quality on our trains”, in RAIL, number 941, page 32

Origin of black carbon

Coined by American physicist Tihomir Novakov in 1980.

Questions about black carbon

What does black carbon mean?
Black carbon means elemental carbon in the form of very fine graphite particulates, a major component of soot.
What part of speech is black carbon?
Black carbon is a noun.

Words near black carbon in the dictionary

  1. black cap
  2. black caps
  3. black car
  4. black caraway
  5. black caraways
  6. black carbon
  7. black card
  8. black cardamom
  9. black cards
  10. black carob
  11. black carp

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: black carbon (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.

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