sodium hydroxide

noun, Chemistry

a white, deliquescent, water-soluble solid, NaOH, usually in the form of lumps, sticks, chips, or pellets, that upon solution in water generates heat: used chiefly in the manufacture of other chemicals, rayon, film, soap, as a laboratory reagent, and in medicine as a caustic.

Also called caustic soda, soda.

Origin

1880-85

Examples from the web for sodium hydroxide

Oxalic acid is made commercially by treating either sugar with nitric acid or cellulose with sodium hydroxide.
sodium hydroxide spontaneously dissolves in water and releases heat in the process.

British Dictionary definitions for sodium hydroxide

sodium hydroxide

noun

a white deliquescent strongly alkaline solid used in the manufacture of rayon, paper, aluminium, soap, and sodium compounds. Formula: NaOH Also called caustic soda See also lye

sodium hydroxide in Medicine

sodium hydroxide n.
A strongly alkaline compound used externally. Also called caustic soda.

sodium hydroxide in Science

sodium hydroxide
A white, corrosive, solid compound that absorbs water and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and forms lye when in solution. Sodium hydroxide is toxic and strongly alkaline and is used to make chemicals and soaps and to refine petroleum. Chemical formula: NaOH.