Noun

gasoline (usually uncountable; plural gasolines)

1. (uncountable) (North America) A flammable liquid consisting of a mixture of refined petroleum hydrocarbons, mainly used as a motor fuel; petrol.

   So you punched out a window for ventilation. Was that before or after you noticed you were standing in a lake of gasoline? - Robert DeNiro, Backdraft

2. (countable) A certain kind of gasoline.

   The quality of automobile gasolines varies considerably from one country and producer to another.

   The X refinery produces a wide range of gasolines.

Gasoline or petrol (see American and British English differences) is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture which is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It is also used as a solvent, mainly known for its ability to dilute paints.

It consists mostly of aliphatic hydrocarbons obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene to increase its octane rating. Small quantities of various additives are common, for purposes such as tuning engine performance or reducing harmful exhaust emissions. Some mixtures also contain significant quantities of ethanol as a partial alternative fuel.

Most current or former Commonwealth countries use the term petrol, abbreviated from petroleum spirit. In North America, the substance is called gasoline, a term often shortened in colloquial usage to gas (although petrol is also accepted and used to a lesser extent in Canada). It is not a genuinely gaseous fuel (unlike, for example, liquefied petroleum gas, which is stored under pressure as a liquid, but returned to a gaseous state before combustion). The term petrogasoline is also used.

The term mogas, short for motor gasoline, is used to distinguish automobile fuel from aviation gasoline, or avgas. In British English, gasoline can refer to a different petroleum derivative historically used in lamps, but this usage is relatively uncommon.