/'i:θə(r); `iθɚ/
n [U]
1 colourless liquid made from alcohol, used in industry as a solvent to dissolve fats, etc and (esp formerly) medically as an anaesthetic 醚; 乙醚.
2 (also aether)
(a) (arch or joc 古或谑) the upper air 上空
*Today's news goes into the ether and is soon forgotten. 今天的新闻广播听後不久即置于脑後了.
(b) type of substance formerly believed to fill all space through which light waves were thought to travel 以太.

n
[Date: 1300-1400; Language: Latin;Origin: aether, from Greek aither, from aithein 'to catch fire']
[U]
a clear liquid used in the past as an anaesthetic to make people sleep before an operation
the ether
a) the space through which radio waves or computer signals travel
　voices coming through the ether
b)alsoaetherBrE literary the upper part of the sky