1. a colorless, flammable hydrocarbon gas (C₃H₆) consisting of a three-membered carbon ring; used as an anesthetic and in organic synthesis.
Usage: chemistry; technical

Examples

• Cyclopropane was one of the earliest general anesthetics used in surgery.
• The three-membered ring structure of cyclopropane makes it highly reactive.
• Chemists use cyclopropane as a building block in the synthesis of more complex molecules.
• Cyclopropane is stored as a liquid under pressure in metal cylinders.
• The strain in the cyclopropane ring makes it susceptible to ring-opening reactions.