Chlorine is a green gas used to kill germs in water. Chlorine in the pool, add chlorine, the smell of chlorine.
It kills bacteria in drinking water and swimming pools, and adding it to public supplies is among the largest public health advances there has been. The smell people call chlorine in a pool is actually chloramines, formed when chlorine meets sweat and urine — so a strong smell means a dirty pool rather than a heavily dosed one. It was also the first gas used as a weapon, in 1915.
1nounchlorineA green gas used to kill germs in water.
“Chlorine is added to tap water to kill harmful bacteria.”
chlorine is a chemical element.
Humphry Davy coined the name in 1810 from Greek chloros, pale green, plus -ine. He named it for its colour after showing it was an element rather than a compound.
Ancient Greek
χλωρός — pale green
English, today
chlorine
From χλωρός + -ine. coined by Q131761 in 1810 from Ancient Greek χλωρός (“pale green”) + -ine.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA