borax

See also: Borax and bórax

English

Borax

Etymology

Etymology tree

Middle Persian *bōragbor.

Arabic بَوْرَق (bawraq)der.

Medieval Latin boraxder.

Anglo-Norman boreisbor.

Middle English boras

English borax

From Middle English boras, from Anglo-Norman boreis, from Medieval Latin borax, baurach (“borax”), from Arabic بَوْرَق (bawraq), from Middle Persian bwlk' (bōrag), which yielded Persian بوره (bure).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔː.ɹæks/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔɹ.æks/
• Rhymes: -ɔːɹæks

Noun

borax (usually uncountable, plural boraxes or boraces)

2. A white or gray/grey crystalline salt, found in nature as a mineral, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering metals, making enamels, fixing colors/colours on porcelain, and as a soap, etc.
   • 2025 March 13, Jillian Tracy, “Wash your laundry problems down the drain with these 18 expert-approved products”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     “The best way to clean the machine is to put a pound of borax and a gallon of vinegar in the machine and run the longest, hottest cycle you have,” he says.

4. (inorganic chemistry) The sodium salt of boric acid, Na₂B₄O₇, either anhydrous or with 5 or 10 molecules of water of crystallization.

   Synonyms: sodium tetraborate, E285 (when used as a food preservative)

   Hypernyms: borate < compound, substance, stuff

5. (sometimes attributive) Cheap or tawdry furniture or other works of industrial design.
   • 1977, Harlan Ellison, Jeffty is Five:

     Furniture isn't made to last thirty years or longer because they took a survey and found that young homemakers like to throw their furniture out and bring in all new, color-coded borax every seven years.

Derived terms

• boracic
• boraciferous
• boracium
• borax bead test
• borise, borize
• boron
• poke borax
• unboraxed

Related terms

• boric acid

Translations

crystalline salt

• Acehnese: peuja
• Albanian: boraks (sq) m
• Arabic: بَوْرَق m (bawraq)
• Armenian: բորակ (hy) (borak)
• Burmese: လက်ချား (my) (lakhkya:)
• Catalan: bòrax m
• Esperanto: borakso
• Estonian: booraks
• Finnish: booraksi (fi)
• French: borax (fr) m
• German: Borax n
• Hindi: सुहागा (hi) (suhāgā)
• Hungarian: bórax (hu)
• Ido: sodoborato (io)
• Indonesian: boraks (id), bleng, pijer, cetitet
• Irish: bórás m
• Italian: borace m
• Japanese: ホウ砂 (ja) (hōsha), 硼砂 (ja) (hōsha)
• Javanese: bleng, cetitèt
• Kyrgyz: бура (ky) f (bura)
• Latin: santerna f
• Persian: بوره (fa) (bure)
• Polish: boraks (pl) m
• Portuguese: bórax m
• Romanian: borax (ro) n, borat de sodiu
• Russian: бура́ (ru) f (burá)
• Serbo-Croatian: boraks (sh)
• Spanish: bórax (es) m, borraj (es) m
• Sundanese: pijer
• Tagalog: pinse
• Turkish: boraks (tr)
• Vietnamese: hàn the (vi)

(chemistry) Na2B4O7

• Finnish: booraksi (fi)
• French: borax (fr) m
• Irish: bórás m
• Polish: boraks (pl) m

Verb

borax (third-person singular simple present boraxes, present participle boraxing, simple past and past participle boraxed)

1. (transitive) To treat with borax.

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2026), “Borax”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “borax”, in Mindat.org, Keswick, Va.: Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2026.
• “borax n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present.
• borax at the Free Dictionary

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English borax.

Noun

borax m (invariable)

1. borax

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French borax.

Noun

borax n (uncountable)

1. borax

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	borax	boraxul
genitive-dative	borax	boraxului
vocative	boraxule