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Definition of petroleum noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

petroleum

noun
 
/pəˈtrəʊliəm/
 
/pəˈtrəʊliəm/
 [uncountable]
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  1. mineral oil that is found under the ground or the sea and is used to produce petrol, paraffin, diesel oil, etc.
    • The government suspended its supplies of petroleum to the country as a result of the crisis.
    • There were still 30 million barrels of refined petroleum in storage.
    Topics Physics and chemistryc1
    Oxford Collocations DictionaryPetroleum is used before these nouns:
    • exploration
    • geology
    • reserve
    • …
    See full entry
    Word Originlate Middle English: from medieval Latin, from Latin petra ‘rock’ (from Greek) + Latin oleum ‘oil’.
See petroleum in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee petroleum in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
Check pronunciation: petroleum

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