phosphoric

phosphor +‎ -ic

phosphoric (comparative more phosphoric, superlative most phosphoric)

1. (chemistry) Pertaining to the element phosphorus; containing phosphorus, especially in its higher valency (5). [from 18th c.]
2. (figurative or literary) Pertaining to a phosphor; phosphorescent. [from 18th c.]
   • 1802, William Paley, Natural Theology, section XIX:

     I refer to the light in the tail of a glow-worm […] first, that it is phosphoric; secondly, that its use is to attract the male insect.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 197–198:

     [T]he gulf beneath blended in the darkness, till but one atmosphere seemed both above and below, sometimes illumined by flashes of phosphoric light—meteors that might have suited sea or sky, and, broken by two or three ridges of foam, seen in obscurity, like lines of snow.

• (of or pertaining to phosphorus): phosphorous
• (resembling phosphorus): phosphorous

• phosphoric acid
• phosphoric chloride

• phosphorous