carbons

Noun

carbon (countable and uncountable, plural carbons)

1. (uncountable) The chemical element (symbol C) with an atomic number of 6. It can be found in pure form for example as graphite, a black, shiny and very soft material, or diamond, a colourless, transparent, crystalline solid and the hardest known material.
   • All life as we know it has carbon as the backbone of many of its molecules; carbon’s tetravalence gives it special importance in biochemical molecular bonds.
2. (countable) An atom of this element, in reference to a molecule containing it.
   • A methane molecule is made up of a single carbon with four hydrogens.
3. (countable, informal) A sheet of carbon paper.
   • He stepped back and opened his bag and took out a printed pad of D.O.A. forms and began to write over a carbon.1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 51
4. (countable, informal) A carbon copy.
   • Please provide me with a carbon of your form.
5. A fossil fuel that is made of impure carbon such as coal or charcoal.
6. Soot.
   • Every morning she cleaned the carbon from the lamp chimneys.

See all 16 meanings of carbon