ammonia

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Egyptian jmnbor.

Ancient Greek Ᾰ̓́μμων (Ắmmōn)bor.

Latin Ammōn

Latin ammoniacusder.

English ammonia

From Latin sal ammoniacus (“salt of Amun, ammonium chloride”), named so because it was found near the temple of (Jupiter) Ammon in Egypt. Ammon derives from Ancient Greek Ἄμμων (Ámmōn), from Egyptian jmn (

).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: əmōn'yə, əmō'niə, IPA^(key): /əˈməʊ.nɪ.ə/
• (US) enPR: əmōn'yə, əmō'nēə, IPA^(key): /əˈmoʊn.jə/, (less common) /əˈmoʊ.ni.ə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊniə

Noun

ammonia (countable and uncountable, plural ammonias)

2. (inorganic chemistry) A gaseous, toxic compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, NH₃, with a pungent smell and taste.
3. A solution of this compound in water used domestically as a cleaning fluid.

   Never use ammonia to clean metal writing pens.

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 95:

     Slowly we rode down to the camp - a very sorrowful party. We took "Nep" straight to the surgery, where the doctor instantly applied injections of ammonia, then the new remedy for snake bite.

   • 1985 December 14, Kim Westheimer, “Rape-Surviving Lesbian Faces Repeated Attacks”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 22, page 1:

     When the woman pressed charges against the man who beat her up and threatened her, the man's girlfriend approached her after work and threw a bottle of ammonia at her.

Synonyms

• spirits of hartshorn (obsolete)
• volatile alkali (obsolete)

Derived terms

• 880 ammonia
• amatol
• ammonaemia
• ammonemia
• ammonia borane
• ammoniac
• ammonia caramel
• ammonialike
• ammonian
• ammoniaphone
• ammonia process
• ammonia-soda process
• ammoniate
• ammoniation
• ammonia water
• ammonic
• ammonical
• ammonification
• ammonify
• ammonium
• ammonuria
• ammoxidation
• aqua ammonia
• baker's ammonia
• blue ammonia
• brown ammonia
• caustic ammonia
• gray ammonia
• green ammonia
• grey ammonia
• liquid ammonia
• oxammite
• oxyammonia

Related terms

• amide
• amine
• amino-

Translations

the compound NH₃

• Arabic: أَمُونِيَا (ar) f (ʔamūniyā), نُشَادِر m (nušādir)
• Bulgarian: амоняк (bg) (amonjak)
• Catalan: amoníac m
• Cherokee: ᎠᎼᏂᏯ (amoniya)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 氨 (on¹), 氨氣 / 氨气 (on¹ hei³), 阿摩尼亞 / 阿摩尼亚 (aa³ mo¹ nei⁴ aa³) (common name)

  Hakka: 氨 (ôn), 阿摩尼亞 / 阿摩尼亚 (à-mo-ni-yá) (common name)

  Hokkien: 氨 (an), a-mó͘-ní-á

  Mandarin: 氨 (zh) (ān), 氨氣 / 氨气 (zh) (ānqì), 阿摩尼亞 / 阿摩尼亚 (zh) (āmóníyà) (common name), 安摩尼亞 / 安摩尼亚 (zh) (ānmóníyà) (common name)

• Czech: čpavek (cs) m, amoniak (cs) m
• Danish: ammoniak (da) c
• Dutch: ammoniak (nl) m
• Esperanto: amoniako
• Estonian: ammoniaak (et)
• Faroese: ammoniakk n
• Finnish: ammoniakki (fi)
• French: ammoniaque (fr) f, ammoniac (fr) m
• German: Ammoniak (de) n
• Greek: αμμωνία (el) f (ammonía)
• Hungarian: ammónia (hu)
• Indonesian: amonia (id)
• Irish: amóinia f
• Italian: ammoniaca (it) f
• Japanese: アンモニア (ja) (anmonia)
• Korean: 암모니아 (ko) (ammonia)
• Latvian: amonjaks m
• Malay: amonia
• Malayalam: അമോണിയ (ml) (amōṇiya)
• Māori: haukini
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ammoniakk (no) m

  Nynorsk: ammoniakk m

• Persian: آمونیاک (fa) (âmuniyâk)
• Polish: amoniak (pl) m
• Portuguese: amoníaco (pt) m

  Brazilian Portuguese: amônia (pt) f

  European Portuguese: amónia f

• Romanian: amoniac (ro) n
• Russian: аммиа́к (ru) m (ammiák)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: амо̀нијак m

  Latin: amònijak (sh) m

• Slovak: čpavok m, amoniak m
• Spanish: amoníaco (es) m
• Swedish: ammoniak (sv) c
• Tagalog: amonya (tl)
• Turkish: amonyak (tr)
• Ukrainian: аміа́к (uk) m (amiák), амоніа́к (uk) m (amoniák)

References

• ammonia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “ammonia”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “ammonia”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Amaimon

Dutch

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑˈmoː.ni.aː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: am‧mo‧nia
• Rhymes: -oːniaː

Noun

ammonia f (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. ammonia solution

Related terms

• ammoniak

Descendants

• → Indonesian: amonia