oxygen
Pluraloxygens
- 1A clear gas with no color or smell that animals breathe to live, made of two atoms joined together.
Like the air your lungs need: without it, you cannot live.
We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide.
Without enough oxygen, a fire cannot keep burning.
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- 2A basic chemical element that living things need, found as a clear gas with no color or smell.
Like a single building block that joins with others to make many different things.
Oxygen is the eighth element on the periodic table.
Oxygen makes up about one fifth of the air around us.
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- 3A breathing gas with extra oxygen, given to a sick or injured person to help them breathe.
Like giving extra air to someone who is finding it hard to breathe.
The nurse gave the patient oxygen through a mask.
Climbers on tall mountains often carry oxygen to help them breathe.
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- 4Whatever something needs to grow and stay alive, such as money, support, or attention.
Like air for a fire: take it away and the flame goes out.
Public attention gave the small campaign the oxygen it needed to grow.
Without new funding, the project lost its oxygen and slowly died.
Similarlifeblood, fuel, sustenance, nourishment
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- 5A single one of the tiny particles that make up the element oxygen.
Like one Lego piece that clicks onto others to form a shape.
A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogens.
Each carbon dioxide molecule holds two oxygens bonded to one carbon.
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Practice
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Origin
From French oxygène, from Ancient Greek words meaning "sharp" and "birth," because people once thought oxygen helped form acids.