sulfur

Syllables: sul·fur/ˈsʌl.fə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ˈsʊl.fə/

sulfur noun: a chemical element with atomic number 16, having a bright yellow color and characteristic smell, used commercially in a variety of products such as insecticides, black powder, and matchsticks.

Image: Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sulfur (usually uncountable, plural sulfurs)

(usually) A chemical element with atomic number 16, having a bright yellow color and characteristic smell, used commercially in a variety of products such as insecticides, black powder, and matchsticks.
- A Dungeon horrible, on all ſides round / As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from thoſe flames / No light, but rather darkneſs viſible / […] but torture without end / Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed / With ever-burning Sulphur unconſum’d:1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC
- Sure only that man is mortal; that with the life of one mortal snaps irrevocably the wonderfulest talisman, and all Dubarrydom rushes off, with tumult, into infinite Space; and ye, as subterranean Apparitions are wont, vanish utterly,—leaving only a smell of sulphur!1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter 1, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book I (Death of Louis XV)
Synonyms:

brimstone, devil's gold
1. (usually) The element symbolically associated with hellfire or damnation, or in alchemy, the fiery principle present in all things.
  - “She shall be blasted like a riven oak! Drowned in sulphur! Torn by whirlwinds!”1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 68
(countable, uncountable, usually) A yellowish green colour, like that of sulfur.
(usually) Any of various pierid butterflies of the subfamily Coliadinae, especially the sulfur-coloured species.

Adjective

sulfur (comparative more sulfur, superlative most sulfur)

Of a yellowish green colour, like that of sulfur.
Having a characteristic sulfur-like smell, reminiscent of rotten eggs.
- On the November morning when the sulfur burps began, Derron Borders was welcoming prospective students at the graduate school where he works in New York. […] Sulfur burps appear to be a somewhat rare side effect of semaglutide, tirzepatide, and other drugs in their class, known as GLP-1 receptor...2023 May 2, Rachel Gutman-Wei, “Beware the Ozempic Burp”, in The Atlantic

Verb

sulfur (third-person singular simple present sulfurs, present participle sulfuring, simple past and past participle sulfured)

(transitive) To treat with sulfur, or a sulfur compound, especially to preserve or to counter agricultural pests.

sulfur meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sulfur in Hindi

element: गन्धक gandhak

sulfur in Tamil

element: கந்தகம் kantakam

sulfur in Marathi

element: गंधक gandhak

sulfur in Urdu

element: گندھک gandhak, کبریت kibrīt

More languagesFewer languages

sulfur in Bengali: গন্ধক gondhok
sulfur in Malayalam: ഗന്ധകം gandhakaṁ, സൾഫർ saḷphaṟ
sulfur in Punjabi: ਗੰਧਕ gandhak
sulfur in Gujarati: ગંધક gandhak
sulfur in Sanskrit: गन्धक gandhaka
sulfur in Sinhala: ගෙන්දගම් gendagam, සල්ෆර් salfar
sulfur in Assamese: গন্ধক gondhok
sulfur in Pashto: ګوګړ gogǝ́ṛ, سلفر salfár
sulfur in Tagalog: sangyawa, asupre
sulfur in Arabic: كِبْرِيت kibrīt, كِبْرِيتِيّ kibrītiyy
sulfur in Malay: sulfur, belerang
sulfur in Indonesian: belerang, sulfur
sulfur in Persian: گوگرد gugerd, کبریت kebrit
sulfur in Thai: กำมะถัน gam-má-tǎn, มาศ mâat, ซัลเฟอร์ sal-fə̂ə
sulfur in Vietnamese: lưu huỳnh
sulfur in Myanmar: ကန့် kan.

Examples of sulfur in a sentence

It went like this: first, we were cavemen, then there was ancient Greece, then Rome burned (cue sulfur-odor FX), then there was the Great Depression, and, finally, we reached the modern age.2003, Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Tor Books:
The chemical is used in industry worldwide, from making matchsticks to vulcanizing rubber, but Ijen’s sulfur goes mostly to local factories, which use it to bleach sugar.2015 February 25, Kevin McElvaney, “Inside Indonesia's Ijen Volcano”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2016:

All 32 example sentences with sulfur

Synonyms of sulfur

Forms of sulfur

Noun
plural	sulfurs
alternative form	sulphur
Adjective
comparative	more sulfur
superlative	most sulfur
Verb
third-person singular present	sulfurs
present participle	sulfuring
past participle	sulfured
past	sulfured

Origin of sulfur

From Middle English sulphur, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sulfre, from Latin sulfur, from sulpur itself of uncertain origin. Displaced Old English swefl and largely displaced brimstone.

Words formed from sulfur

Phrases with sulfur

55 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about sulfur

What does sulfur mean?: Sulfur means a chemical element with atomic number 16, having a bright yellow color and characteristic smell, used commercially in a variety of products such as insecticides, black powder, and matchsticks.
What is sulfur in Hindi?: Sulfur in Hindi is गन्धक (gandhak). See Sulfur meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sulfur in a sentence?: It went like this: first, we were cavemen, then there was ancient Greece, then Rome burned (cue sulfur-odor FX), then there was the Great Depression, and, finally, we reached the modern age.
What part of speech is sulfur?: Sulfur can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce sulfur?: Sulfur is pronounced /ˈsʌl.fə/ (UK).
What is the plural of sulfur?: The plural of sulfur is sulfurs.

Words near sulfur in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sulfur (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Tesco250-sulfur.wav, En-us-sulfur.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sulfur.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sulfur. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.