nitric acid

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A colorless to yellowish, fuming corrosive liquid, HNO₃, a highly reactive oxidizing agent used in the production of fertilizers, explosives, and rocket fuels and in a wide variety of industrial metallurgical processes.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun inorganic chemistry A transparent, colourless to pale yellow, fuming corrosive liquid, HNO3; a highly reactive oxidizing agent used in the production of fertilizers, explosives, and rocket fuels and in a wide variety of industrial processes; once called aqua fortis.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun acid used especially in the production of fertilizers and explosives and rocket fuels