''ozone'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260708144405-00-⌔

ozone - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

ozone (usually uncountable, plural ozones)

• (inorganic chemistry) An allotrope of oxygen (symbol O₃) having three atoms in the molecule instead of the usual two; it is a toxic gas, generated from oxygen by electrical discharge.
  • ✤ Hypernym: greenhouse gas
  • ✤ Lightning flashed again, the thunder came a second later. It rained harder. The smell of ozone was strong. You could feel the charge in the air.¹
  • ✤ Martin said that the National Park Service invested in “a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler filtration system” that is intended to keep algae out.²
• (UK, informal) Fresh air, especially that breathed at the seaside and smelling of seaweed.
  • ✤ A patent obtained in England, and specified far from clearly, for obtaining ozone by boiling seaweed,†† may be mentioned as a curiosity, and also the credulity with which ozone -baths, prepared in this manner, find a ready sale, in spite of, or perhaps rather on account of, their high price.³
  • ✤ To Ramsgate baths she sped, in quest/Of seaweed and ozone;/For seaweed and ozone were best,/They said, to give her tone.⁴
  • ✤ It’s got the lot: fresh sea air, ozone, seaweed. You could cut the air with a knife.⁵

Verb

ozone (third-person singular simple present ozones, present participle ozoning, simple past and past participle ozoned)

• (transitive) To treat with ozone.
  • ✤ Whenever it exists, as it usually does, even where the tide water freshens at the ebb, it seems to have a purifying tendency, probably by ozoning the superincumbent atmosphere.⁶
  • ✤ I worked nonstop to make the house safe. Periodically I ozoned the first-floor bathroom, but it still made us sick.⁷

Etymology

From German Ozon, coined 1840 by Christian Friedrich Schönbein, from Ancient Greek ὄζον (ózon), neuter participle of ὄζω (ózō, “I smell”), in reference to its pungent odour.

The “fresh air” sense is from an erroneous former belief that seaweed contains and releases ozone.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈəʊzəʊn/, (obsolete)/ə(ʊ)ˈzəʊn/⁸
• (General American) IPA: /ˈoʊzoʊn/
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-07-08.

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Footnotes

1. 2018, Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death, Harper Voyager, page 334: ↩

2. 2026 June 10, Kit Maher, “‘Residual algae’ coats part of newly opened Reflecting Pool”, in CNN ‎${}^{[2]}$, archived from the original on 11 June 2026: ↩

3. 1875, William Crookes, The Chemical News, page 99: ↩

4. 1888, L. T. Meade, A. Balfour Symington, Edwin Oliver, Atalanta, volume 1, page 674: ↩

5. 2007, Robert Douglas, Tales of the Unexpected: Somewhere to Lay My Head, unnumbered page: ↩

6. 1868, Medical and Surgical Reporter, volume 19, page 392: ↩

7. 1997, Robert Sampson, Patricia Hughes, Breaking Out of Environmental Illness: ↩

8. Ross, Alan S. C. (1970), “ozone”, in How to pronounce it ‎${}^{[1]}$, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 137. ↩