petroleum

/pəˈtroʊliəm/

/pɛˈtrʌʊliəm/

Other forms: petroleums

Petroleum is oil — a fossil fuel that powers many vehicles and other machinery.

Petroleum is a fancy, technical word for something you've probably heard of: oil, an energy source. Petroleum is also known as crude, crude oil, fossil oil, and rock oil. A lot of petroleum is found in the Middle East, and people are always looking for new sources of petroleum. You have to drill for petroleum, because it's deep inside the Earth. There’s a limited amount of petroleum, so many people worry that we're going to use it all up.

Definitions of petroleum

1. noun

   a dark oil consisting mainly of hydrocarbons
   synonyms: crude, crude oil, fossil oil, oil, rock oil

   types:

   resid, residual oil

   oil products that remain after petroleum has been distilled

   type of:

   fossil fuel

   fuel consisting of the remains of organisms preserved in rocks in the earth's crust with high carbon and hydrogen content

   oil

   a slippery or viscous liquid or liquefiable substance not miscible with water