On 22 May 2007 09:15:39 -0700, wrote:

You define all soap products as detergents? (just curious)

No, I define all, and only, CLEANING products as detergents. A soap
product is a detergent if it's for cleaning. (Some soap products are
used for other purposes, such as lubrication.) Sand is a detergent if
it's used for cleaning. See also http://users.bestweb.net/~robgood/suds/terminol.html
. However, the term is commonly MISused to indicate specifically
soapless but soaplike detergents, and even for surfactants with no
significant cleaning properties.

So if I read that correctly, plain water or sand blasting agents can
be called detergents?