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chemical substance

chemical substance

1 3.2
A material used in reactions or to make other things like medicines
  • noun
  • /ˈkɛmɪkəl ˈsʌbstəns/
  • Specialized
translation icon : sustancia química
  • Many chemical substances have unique properties that make them useful in various industries.
  • toxic chemical substances

Maybe it just takes a lot of either chemical substances or a lot of, like, mental work to escape that.

Examples

  • For example, there is not an infinite number of naturally occurring elemental chemical substances; the periodic table recognizes only 92 kinds.

    Academic text (1993)
  • Large quantities of chemical substances will lead to toothache or gum disease.

    Blog text (7)
  • But who would have thought that a chemical substance could produce this effect?

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Just a small injection of a chemical substance into the brain through the blood vessels.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • The Act would establish as a national policy that new chemical substances should be adequately tested.

    Academic text (1992)
  • Herbicides were not widely used in Vermont until after World War II, although experimentation with chemical substances began at the end of the nineteenth century.

    Academic text (1991)
  • Biological cells are remarkably organized accumulations of chemical substances, arranged into myriad types of sub-structural entities within the cells.

    Blog text (8)
  • The main pollutants causing soil contamination include heavy metals, pesticides, and toxic chemical substances (Tseng 1989).

    Academic text (1994)
  • Use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the manufactured chemical substances that have been linked to stratospheric ozone depletion, was not widespread until the 1960s.

    Academic text (1991)
  • A chemical substance is formed during the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen.

Synonyms

chemical
vschemical substance
541 3.2

A substance made or used when materials react

focuses on precise composition and on reactions that change atoms or molecules
substance
vschemical substance
335 2.8

A physical material that objects are made of

is narrower, naming materials with specific composition used in reactions

How Pure

element
  • Specialized
102 3.5
pure
390 1.0
chemical substance
  • Specialized
1 3.2
impure
2 4.2
mixture
  • Specialized
55 3.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

chemical + substance

The meaning is directly compositional: 'chemical' (relating to chemistry) modifies 'substance' (a material), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a material related to chemistry. This adjective+noun pattern is a standard, cross-linguistically common construction, making the phrase immediately understandable from its parts.

Etymology

Chemical substance comes from putting together chemical, meaning 'from chemistry', and substance, meaning 'a material'. It gives a simple image of a material made of certain chemicals, so it means 'a material made of certain chemicals'.