Meaning & use

turpentine

noun·Everyday

A strong-smelling liquid made from pine resin, used as a paint thinner and solvent.

See it in a sentence

He cleaned his paintbrushes with turpentine after finishing the oil painting.

The whole workshop smelled strongly of turpentine mixed with fresh sawdust.

A note on using this word

Often misspelled 'terpentine'; the correct spelling begins with 'tur-,' related to 'terpene,' a class of compounds found in resin.

Words with a similar meaning

paint thinner

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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