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methyl isocyanate
noun
: an extremely toxic chemical CH3NCO used especially in the manufacture of pesticides
—abbreviation MIC
Examples of methyl isocyanate in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Up to 20,000 people prematurely died, including at least 3,800 immediately, after a plume of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Ltd. plant in Bhopal, India, where it was used to make the pesticide Sevin.
—Lorenzino Estrada, The Arizona Republic, 3 Dec. 2024
For the first decade, the Bhopal plant imported methyl isocyanate.
—Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Dec. 2024
In Bhopal, a methyl isocyanate gas leak at a pesticide plant spread toxic gas for a 7-kilometer radius, exposing more than half a million people in the city of Bhopal to the gas and led to up to 30,000 deaths in the region.
—City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 June 2023
India suffered the world's worst industrial disaster in 1984 when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory owned by American Union Carbide Corporation in the city of Bhopal, killing more than 5,000 people.
—Reuters, CNN, 7 Jan. 2022
The need for more information from chemical manufacturers and users became a global priority in 1984 when a Union Carbide plant released a burst of methyl isocyanate, an extremely toxic gas that killed at least 3,800 and, by some accounts, as many as 16,000 people in Bhopal, India.
—Michael Hawthorne, chicagotribune.com, 17 May 2021
In 1984, India suffered the world's worst industrial disaster when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory in the city of Bhopal, killing more than 5,000 people and injuring more than half a million others.
—Aj Willingham, CNN, 7 Jan. 2022
Shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984, in the central Indian city of Bhopal, a tank in a pesticide factory leaked, releasing methyl isocyanate into the night sky.
—Vidya Krishnan, The Atlantic, 27 Apr. 2021
In a major industrial disaster in India in 1984, at least 2,850 people were killed and 20,000 injured when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a tank at Union Carbide India Ltd.’s Bhopal plant in central India.
—NBC News, 7 May 2020
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Word History
First Known Use
1889, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of methyl isocyanate was
in 1889
Dictionary Entries Near methyl isocyanate
Cite this Entry
“Methyl isocyanate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/methyl%20isocyanate. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.
Medical Definition
methyl isocyanate
noun
meth·yl iso·cy·a·nate
-ˌī-sō-ˈsī-ə-ˌnāt
: an extremely toxic chemical CH3NCO that is used especially in the manufacture of pesticides and was the cause of numerous deaths and injuries in a leak at a chemical plant in Bhopal, India, in 1984
—abbreviation MIC
More from Merriam-Webster on methyl isocyanate
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about methyl isocyanate
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