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# carbonise

«carbonise» in Mova's school dictionary: **To turn something into carbon or charcoal by heating it…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (carbonise, carbonises, carbonised, carbonising); US spelling: carbonize

### meaning for a pupil

1) To turn something into carbon or charcoal by heating it strongly, usually without much air. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#m1)

2) (science) To change dead plants slowly into coal or into a black carbon layer over a very long time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#m2)

3) (cooking, joking) To burn food so badly that it goes black and hard. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons it comes up with coal, charcoal and fossils: plants carbonise when heat and pressure act on them for millions of years. In the kitchen it is a joking way to say toast or sausages are burnt to a crisp. It tells the reader that something has turned black and hard because of heat. Often in «carbonised remains», «carbonised wood», «carbonised seeds».

### examples

- Charcoal is made by carbonising wood in a kiln with little air. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#x1)
- Over millions of years the buried ferns were carbonised into coal. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#x2)
- Dad left the toast in too long and carbonised it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#x3)
- Archaeologists found carbonised grain in the old Roman oven. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#x4)
- If you heat sugar too long, it starts to carbonise and smell bitter. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#x5)
- The fossil leaf was a thin carbonised film on the rock. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#x6)
- Don't carbonise the marshmallows, just toast them golden. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/#x7)

### note

Regular verb: carbonised, carbonising. UK, Australia, NZ, Ireland often spell it with -ise; the USA and Canada use carbonize. Do not confuse with «carbonate» (to add fizzy carbon dioxide gas to a drink) — carbonated lemonade is fizzy, not burnt.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «carbonise» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/carbonise/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.