Plural of butene; multiple varieties or samples of four-carbon hydrocarbons with double bonds.
From 'butene' plus the regular English plural '-s'. Butene itself comes from the systematic chemical naming convention combining 'but-' (four carbons) and '-ene' (double bond).
Butenes are industrially important because they're used to make plastics, lubricants, and other chemicals. What started as naming system logic became a practical industrial workhorse.
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