styrofoam

English

Expanded polystyrene

Etymology

Genericized trademark of Styrofoam, from -styr- (from polystyrene) + -o- + foam.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈstaɪ.ɹə.fəʊm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈstaɪ.ɹə.foʊm/
• Rhymes: -aɪɹəfəʊm
• Hyphenation: sty‧ro‧foam

Noun

styrofoam (countable and uncountable, plural styrofoams)

1. Expanded polystyrene foam, such as is used in cups and packaging.
   • 1988 November 4, Cecil Adams, “The Straight Dope”, in Chicago Reader‎^[1]:

     A while ago I read your column concerning the effects of hot tea on styrofoam cups.

   • 2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily”, in American Scientist‎^[2], volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 9 May 2013, page 184:

     In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter. Their densities range from that of styrofoam to iron.

   • 2018 August 9, Gerald Porter Jr., Corinne Ramey, “Industry-Backed Group Keeps Fighting Foam Ban”, in The Wall Street Journal‎^[3]:

     Expanded polystyrene foam—commonly, although incorrectly, called Styrofoam—has been the subject of a protracted battle between New York City officials and large industry players, particularly Dart.

Derived terms

• styro
• styrofoam popcorn

 

Translations

polymer

• Arabic: ستايروفوم m (stayrofūm)
• Armenian: փրփրապլաստ (hy) (pʻrpʻraplast)
• Catalan: porexpan m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 發泡膠 / 发泡胶 (zh) (fāpàojiāo), 保麗龍 / 保丽龙 (zh) (bǎolìlóng)

• Dutch: piepschuim (nl) n
• Finnish: styroksi
• French: polystyrène (fr) m, (Quebec) styromousse (fr) m, polystyrène expansé (fr) m, frigolite (fr) f
• German: Styropor (de) n, Polystyrol n
• Greek: φελιζόλ (el) n (felizól)
• Hungarian: hungarocell (hu)
• Icelandic: frauðplast (is) n
• Italian: polistirolo espanso m, polistirene m
• Japanese: 発泡スチロール (ja) (happō-suchirōru)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хөөсөнцөр (mn) (xöösöncör)

  Mongolian: ᠬᠥᠭᠡᠰᠦᠨᠴᠢᠷ (kögesünčir)

• Polish: styropian (pl) m
• Portuguese: esferovite (pt) (Portugal), isopor (pt) m(Brazil)
• Russian: пенопла́ст (ru) m (penoplást), пенополистиро́л (ru) m (penopolistiról)
• Serbo-Croatian: stȉropōr (sh) m
• Slovene: stiropọ̑r m
• Spanish: poliestireno expandido m (formal), poliestireno extruido m (formal), telgopor m (Argentina), unicel (es) m (Mexico), plumavit m (Chile), anime (es) m (Venezuela), extrusionado m, extrudido (es) m, estereofón m (Costa Rica), poliespán m (Spain)
• Swedish: frigolit (sv) c, cellplast (sv) c, skumplast (sv) c
• Yiddish: סטיראָשוים (stiroshoym)

Further reading

• “styrofoam”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “styrofoam”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “styrofoam”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.