gasworks

IPA/ˈɡæswɜːks/
IPA/ˈɡæswɜːrks/

gasworks — noun

  • gasworkssingular
  • gasworksesplural

1. an industrial site where coal was processed to produce flammable gas, used in ea

1.nounB2
Definition

an industrial site where coal was processed to produce flammable gas, used in earlier times for street lighting, home cooking, and heating buildings before natural gas became widely available

Example

The gasworks in Birmingham supplied gas for over 40,000 homes before it shut down in 1972.

historical context — closure era

Architects plan to turn Porto's disused gasworks into a park with playgrounds.

urban redevelopment of former industrial site

Common collocations
  • disused gasworks
  • old gasworks
  • former gasworks
  • gasworks site
Synonyms
  • gas plant

    a less common synonym; gas plant can also refer to chemical plants, so gasworks is more specific

  • coal-gas plant

    emphasises the raw material; more transparent in meaning but less idiomatic in everyday speech

Usage Note

Frequently used with former, disused, or old because most gasworks have been decommissioned since the arrival of natural gas in the mid-20th century. Often treated as a singular noun despite the plural form (e.g. the gasworks was built in 1880).

Common Mistakes

The gasworks were built in 1890.
The gasworks was built in 1890.
gasworks is usually treated as a singular noun even though it ends in -s.
He works at a gasworks that produces natural gas.
He works at a gasworks that produced coal gas.
gasworks refers specifically to coal-gas production, not natural gas.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

A gasworks is a specialised type of factory that processed coal into flammable gas for lighting, cooking, and heating. The term power plant (or power station) refers to a facility that generates electricity — it may burn coal, gas, or nuclear fuel, but its output is electricity, not gas. A factory is a broad term for any building where goods are manufactured; a gasworks produced a fuel rather than a tangible product. A refinery processes crude oil into petrol, diesel, and other petroleum products — it deals with liquid hydrocarbons, whereas a gasworks dealt with coal. In short: gasworks = coal-to-gas conversion; power plant = electricity generation; factory = general goods manufacturing; refinery = crude oil processing.

power plantfactory ↗refinery

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • disused gasworks
  • former gasworks
  • old gasworks
  • gasworks site

Etymology

GreekDutchEnglishOld English

Gasworks is a compound formed from gas (from Dutch gas, coined by 17th-century chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, based on Greek khaos 'chaos') + works (from Old English weorc 'something done, a structure'). The term appeared in the early 19th century when towns across Britain and Europe built coal-gas plants to light streets and homes.