hydrogen sulfide

noun

1. a colorless, flammable, water-soluble, cumulatively poisonous gas, H 2 S, having the odor of rotten eggs: used chiefly in the manufacture of chemicals, in metallurgy, and as a reagent in laboratory analysis.

hydrogen sulfide

1. A colorless, poisonous gas that smells like rotten eggs. It is formed naturally by decaying organic matter and is the smelly component of intestinal gas. It is also emitted by volcanoes and fumaroles. Hydrogen sulfide is used in the petroleum, rubber, and mining industries, and in making sulfur. Chemical formula: H 2 S.

Word History and Origins

Origin of hydrogen sulfide¹

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

In May 2021, the EPA issued an emergency order under the Clean Air Act requiring the company to reduce hydrogen sulfide emissions and install air quality monitors on its fence line.

From Time

The state was forced to continuously pipe a mixture of seawater, crude oil, and highly poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas from the leaking wells to Venoco’s onshore processing facility, which separates the components and incinerates the hydrogen sulfide.

From Time

It’s made up of a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide and a little hydrogen sulfide and water vapor, all of which is produced by microbes that live on organic raw material within a airtight digester container.

From Singularity Hub 

Methane and hydrogen sulfide, both highly flammable and potentially explosive gases, are also constant hazards.

From MIT Technology Review

Vents in the rocks and ground were releasing more than 500 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide — levels that could cause humans to stagger and collapse within five minutes.

From ProPublica

Their hydrogen sulfide plant blew a crater in the ground a year ago.

From The Daily Beast

A man can live in a boiler factory or in a cubist art gallery, but he cannot live in a room containing hydrogen sulfide.

From Project Gutenberg

Or if hydrogen sulfide is mixed with the acetylene we may get thiophenes, which have sulfur in the ring.

From Project Gutenberg

But there are two gases that he always remembers, chlorine and hydrogen sulfide.

From Project Gutenberg

Hydrogen sulfide was what gave the characteristic aroma to rotten eggs, and sulfur dioxide wasn't exactly perfume.

From Project Gutenberg

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), one of the typical gases issuing from fumaroles, readily oxidizes to sulfuric acid and native sulfur.

From Project Gutenberg