Word.ws English Dictionary

tholin

tholin noun: any of several poorly classified heteropolymers derived from simple hydrocarbons and ammonia formed by solar irradiation in the atmospheres of icy planets and moons.

Noun

tholin (plural tholins)

  1. Any of several poorly classified heteropolymers derived from simple hydrocarbons and ammonia formed by solar irradiation in the atmospheres of icy planets and moons.

Forms of tholin

pluraltholins

Origin of tholin

From Ancient Greek θολός (tholós, “muddy”) + -in. Coined by Carl Sagan and Bishun Khare in 1979. From the muddy coloration that this class of chemical compounds appear to have, when observed on the Saturnian moon Titan, and from Miller–Urey-style experiments.

Questions about tholin

What does tholin mean?
Tholin means any of several poorly classified heteropolymers derived from simple hydrocarbons and ammonia formed by solar irradiation in the atmospheres of icy planets and moons.
What part of speech is tholin?
Tholin is a noun.
What is the plural of tholin?
The plural of tholin is tholins.

Words near tholin in the dictionary

  1. Tholens
  2. tholepin
  3. tholepins
  4. tholes
  5. tholi
  6. tholin
  7. tholing
  8. tholins
  9. tholloside
  10. thollosidic acid
  11. Tholm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tholin (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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