phosphate
/ˈfɑsfeɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.42 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Guano (containing high levels of phosphates and harvested for the fertiliser industry).
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A carbonated soft drink containing phosphoric acid, often flavored with a fruit-based syrup.
American usage; Countable; Dated; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Make sure you don’t use detergents with phosphates or nonylphenol ethoxylate surfactants, but that information is rarely available on the labels."
- "Bony fishes were judicious in their use of phosphate as a building material: their teeth, a few parts of the skeleton, and that was it."
- "An egg phosphate is a phosphate to which an egg has been added in the proper manner. While an egg phosphate can be flavored with any syrup that makes a good phosphate, still the standard flavor by long usage has com to be orange […]"
- "“This man here,” she said, “can make you a cherry Coke or a chocolate Coke or a phosphate — a chocolate phosphate or. “Vanilla phosphate,” the man helped, “cherry phosphate, orange phosphate, lime phosphate, lemon phosphate,"
- "You order California burgers for us both, even though I don't eat lettuce or tomato, then you order me a phosphate, cherry, a dreadful fizzy drink you say you always loved. It's bitter, bubbly, unbearable; but, thirsty for your past, force myself to drink it."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂os Proto-Hellenic *pʰáwos Ancient Greek φᾰ́ος (phắos) Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs) Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti Proto-Hellenic *pʰérō Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō) Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Hellenic *-os Ancient Greek -ος (-os) Ancient Greek -φόρος (-phóros) Ancient Greek φωσφόρος (phōsphóros)bor. Latin phōsphorusder. French phosphore Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātuslbor. French -ate French phosphateder. English phosphate From French phosphate. By surface analysis, phosphoric acid + -ate (“salt or ester”).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: phosphate
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfɑsfeɪt/
- British English: /ˈfɒsfeɪt/
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage
- Dated
- Transitive verb
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
adenosine phosphate
alkylglycerone phosphate synthase
alkyl phosphate
ammonium phosphate
boron phosphate
cadmium phosphate
calcium dihydrogen phosphate
calcium phosphate