acetylene
/əˈsɛtəlˌin/noun
acetylene is spelled A-C-E-T-Y-L-E-N-E: 9 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,788th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, acetylene means “Any organic compound having one or more carbon–carbon triple bonds; an alkyne” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of acetylene is acetylenes.
How many letters and syllables are in acetylene?
| Letters | 9: A-C-E-T-Y-L-E-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 56,788th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is acetylene?
Acetylene appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,788th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce acetylene?
- /əˈsɛtəlˌin/
Acetylene has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-acetylene.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of acetylene
- acetylenes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does acetylene mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any organic compound having one or more carbon–carbon triple bonds; an alkyne.
- 2
Ethyne; the simplest alkyne, a hydrocarbon of formula HC≡CH. It is a colourless, odourless, extremely flammable, explosive gas, formerly used as an illuminating gas, but now used in welding and metallurgy.
- 3
A lamp powered by acetylene, particularly a motor vehicle headlight.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Acetylene in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense compound with a triple bond:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does acetylene come from?
Borrowed from French acétylène, coined by French chemist Marcellin Berthelot, from acetyl + -ene.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).