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neon

UK/ˈni.ɒn/US/ˈniˌɑn/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,940 of 15,258neutral

Neon is a gas that glows orange-red in a tube. A neon sign, neon lights, glowing neon.

Only the orange-red is truly it — the other colours in neon signs come from different gases and coated tubes, though the whole trade kept the name. It is inert and reacts with nothing. The Greek means new, because it was newly found in 1898.

Jurii · CC BY 3.0

Definitions of neon

  1. 1nounneonAn inert gas that glows orange-red in a tube.B2

    “The bright neon signs of the city glowed red all night.”

neon is a gas.

Where it comes from

Greek neon means new, the neuter of neos. The gas was newly discovered in 1898 and named for it.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *néwos

  2. Proto-Hellenic

    *newos

  3. Ancient Greek

    νέον

  4. English, today

    neon

Built from

  • νέος · Ancient Greek — new

Ancient Greek νέον, neuter of νέος (“new”), from earlier νέϝος, from Proto-Hellenic newos, from Proto-Indo-European néwos. by surface analysis, neo- + -on.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Chemistry & Elements

Practise this word

neon in the wild

  • A neon lamp (also neon glow lamp) is a miniature gas-discharge lamp.

    Neon lamp

  • While they are used worldwide, neon signs were popular in the United States from about the 1920s to 1950s.

    Neon sign

  • The installations in Times Square, many originally designed by Douglas Leigh, were famed, and there were nearly 2,000 small shops producing neon signs by 1940.

    Neon sign

  • The neon-burning process is a set of nuclear fusion reactions that take place in evolved massive stars with at least 8 Solar masses.

    Neon-burning process

  • The term can also refer to the miniature neon glow lamp, developed in 1917, about seven years after neon tube lighting.

    Neon lighting

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.