Word.ws English Dictionary

lamp oil

lamp oil noun: any clean-burning oil used as fuel in an oil lamp.

Noun

lamp oil (countable and uncountable, plural lamp oils)

  1. Any clean-burning oil used as fuel in an oil lamp.
    • Near-synonym: (often synonymous) kerosene
    • He was much pleased at the prospect of the oil he would get from him, turned the heavy creature from one side to the other, fondled him like a baby, and assured me he was a "stunning fat sea-cub," which should be welcomed at home for boot-grease and lamp-oil.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 184
    Synonyms:
    kerosene

Synonyms of lamp oil

Forms of lamp oil

plurallamp oils
alternative formlamp-oil
alternative formlampoil

Origin of lamp oil

From Middle English lamp oyl, lampehoyle, lamp oyle, lampe oyl, lampe oyle, equivalent to lamp + oil. Compare West Frisian lampoalje (“lamp-oil”), Dutch lampolie (“lamp-oil”), German Lampenöl (“lamp-oil”), Danish lampeolie (“lamp-oil”), Swedish lampolja (“lamp-oil”), Icelandic lampaolía (“lamp-oil”).

Questions about lamp oil

What does lamp oil mean?
Lamp oil means any clean-burning oil used as fuel in an oil lamp.
What part of speech is lamp oil?
Lamp oil is a noun.
What is the plural of lamp oil?
The plural of lamp oil is lamp oils.

Words near lamp oil in the dictionary

  1. lamp flora
  2. lamp fount
  3. lamp founts
  4. lamp harp
  5. lamp harps
  6. lamp oil
  7. lamp oils
  8. lamp post
  9. lamp posts
  10. lamp room
  11. lamp rooms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lamp oil (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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