carbon dioxide
nounDefinition of carbon dioxide
: a heavy colorless gas CO2 that does not support combustion, dissolves in water to form carbonic acid, is formed especially in animal respiration and in the decay or combustion of animal and vegetable matter, is absorbed from the air by plants in photosynthesis, and is used in the carbonation of beverages
Examples of carbon dioxide in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the fires have led to a clear spike in carbon monoxide emissions as well as planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, posing a threat to human health and aggravating global warming. — oregonlive.com, "Amazon rainforest is ablaze, turning day into night in Sao Paulo," 21 Aug. 2019 Moreover, gas is primarily composed of methane, a far more potent heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide. — Elena Shao, SFChronicle.com, "Bay Area cities poised to follow Berkeley’s natural gas ban," 19 Aug. 2019 Yet, in addition to being impacted by climate change, agriculture and other land uses are responsible for about 13 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the IPCC report. — NBC News, "Climate change could trigger a global food crisis, new U.N. report says," 8 Aug. 2019 Methane traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide, but doesn’t last nearly as long. — Washington Post, "Eastern US cities spewing more methane into air than thought," 22 July 2019 Methane, which is produced by trash, locks in 25 times more heat to our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. — Morgan Hines, USA TODAY, "2 years of trash in a jam jar: People striving to go 'zero-waste' say it's worth the effort," 17 July 2019 Nitrous oxide is another global warming gas but is nearly 300 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. — Stephen Leahy, National Geographic, "A warming Arctic could cost the world trillions of dollars," 23 Apr. 2019 On the other hand, methane is shorter lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, so restricting its escape can have positive short-term effects on warming. — Megan Geuss, Ars Technica, "Study: US oil and gas methane emissions have been dramatically underestimated," 22 June 2018 And a fraction of the energy that's absorbed by the planet will be trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases (including, yes, carbon dioxide). — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "TESS hits the trifecta: Nearby bright star has 3 interesting planets," 30 July 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'carbon dioxide.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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