polyethylene terephthalate

English

Etymology

From polyethylene +‎ terephthalate.

Pronunciation

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Noun

polyethylene terephthalate

  1. (organic chemistry) A thermoplastic resin of the polyester family used particularly in the manufacture of plastic bottles (PET) and fabrics (Terylene).
    Synonyms: (initialisms) PET, PET-E, PETE, PET-P, PETP
    Hypernym: polyester
    Near-synonym:
    • 2022 April 3, Sabrina Imbler, “In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics”, in The New York Times[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 5 April 2022:
      For eons, the debris has contained the same things — flecks from plant and animal carcasses, feces, mucus, dust, microbes, viruses — and transported the ocean’s carbon to be stored on the seafloor. Increasingly, however, marine snowfall is being infiltrated by microplastics: fibers and fragments of polyamide, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. And this fauxfall appears to be altering our planet’s ancient cooling process.

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