Definition of fossil fuel Fossil fuel
fos•sil fu•el
We found 4 definitions of fossil fuel from 4 different sources.
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What does fossil fuel mean?
WordNet
Noun |
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| fossil fuel - fuel consisting of the remains of organisms preserved in rocks in the earth's crust with high carbon and hydrogen content | ||
| fuel a substance that can be consumed to produce energy; "more fuel is needed during the winter months"; "they developed alternative fuels for aircraft" | ||
| coal fossil fuel consisting of carbonized vegetable matter deposited in the Carboniferous period | ||
| natural gas, gas a fossil fuel in the gaseous state; used for cooking and heating homes | ||
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Wiktionary 
- fossil fuel (Noun)
Any fuel derived from hydrocarbon deposits such as coal, petroleum, natural gas and, to some extent, peat; these fuels are irreplaceable, and their burning generates the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide .
OmegaWiki DictionaryOmegaWiki Dictionary Ω
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fossil fuel
The energy-containing materials which were converted over many thousands of years from their original form of trees, plants and other organisms after being buried in the ground.
Wikipedia 
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Fossil fuels are fuels from fossils. The three most important fossils fuels are coal, petroleum, and natural gas. They contain hydrocarbons, or things that have only hydrogen and carbon in them.
Uses.
Fossil fuels can be used to make electricity in a power plant. They are burned to heat water into steam, which can push a fan-like object called a turbine. When the turbine spins around, magnets in it make electricity.
People also burn coal to heat their homes, but they do not do it as much as they used to because it produces too much pollution.
By fractional distillation, or separating a mixture into different things by boiling, petroleum can be separated into smaller substances like LPG, gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel oil, etc.
In many homes, people burn natural gas in a stove to cook food. It may also be used for heating the house.
Problems.
Fossil fuels produce a lot of pollution when burned. Also, they are non-renewable resources, so they can run out. Ways to solve this problem is to reduce our usage of fossil fuels. Scientists reckon that we will have ran out of coal by 2230 and petroleum by 2030. We can prevent this happening by using renewable energy sources like biomass energy(wood etc). We can also increase the usage of wind turbines and water turbines to generate more electricity without having to burn more fuels
