ether

/ˈiːθər/
noun
  1. A clear liquid used in the past as an anesthetic to make people unconscious during surgery.
    • The smell of ether filled the old operating room.
    • Before modern anesthetics, doctors used ether to put patients to sleep for operations.
    • Ether was first used as a surgical anesthetic in the 1840s.
  2. In physics, a substance once believed to fill all space and carry light waves; now replaced by modern theories.
    • The idea of ether was abandoned after Einstein's theory of relativity.
    • Nineteenth-century scientists thought light traveled through a substance called ether.
    • Experiments failed to detect the ether, leading to new ideas about space.
  3. A chemical compound in which an oxygen atom connects two carbon groups, often used as a solvent.
    • Diethyl ether is a common solvent in chemistry labs.
    • The chemist carefully handled the volatile ether in a fume hood.
    • Ethers are used in making perfumes and pharmaceuticals.
  4. In informal use, the air or the sky, especially as a medium for radio or electronic signals.
    • The radio station's signal travels through the ether to reach listeners.
    • Messages seemed to disappear into the ether without a reply.
    • He felt his words were lost in the ether of the internet.
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