POLYSTYRENE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does polystyrene mean? 

• POLYSTYRENE (noun)
  The noun POLYSTYRENE has 1 sense:

1. a polymer of styrene; a rigid transparent thermoplastic

  Familiarity information: POLYSTYRENE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POLYSTYRENE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A polymer of styrene; a rigid transparent thermoplastic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Context example:

expanded polystyrene looks like a rigid white foam and is used as packing or insulation

Hypernyms ("polystyrene" is a kind of...):

cinnamene; phenylethylene; styrene; vinylbenzene (a colorless oily liquid; the monomer for polystyrene)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "polystyrene"):

Styrofoam (a light resilient foam of polystyrene)

 Context examples 

Hexamethylphosphoramide is used as a stabilizer against thermal degradation in polystyrene and is used as a solvent in research laboratories.

(Hexamethylphosphoramide, NCI Thesaurus)

Polystyrene has been routinely detected in the world's oceans since the 1970s.

(Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected, National Science Foundation)

The persistence of polystyrene in the environment may be shorter and likely more complicated than we understood.

(Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected, National Science Foundation)

One of our motivations for this study was to understand if polystyrene actually does last that long.

(Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected, National Science Foundation)

"Right now, policymakers generally assume that polystyrene lasts forever in the environment," says Collin Ward, a marine chemist at WHOI and lead author of the study.

(Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected, National Science Foundation)

New research published by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows that polystyrene, one of the world's most ubiquitous plastics, may degrade in decades or centuries when exposed to sunlight, rather than thousands of years as previously thought.

(Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected, National Science Foundation)