state of matter


Also found in: Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

state of matter

(stāt)
One of the principal conditions in which matter exists. Matter is traditionally divided into three states—solid, liquid, and gas. Ice, liquid water, and steam, for example, are three states of matter of the same substance. The electrically neutral condition known as plasma is often considered a fourth state of matter.
The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.state of matter - (chemistry) the three traditional states of matter are solids (fixed shape and volume) and liquids (fixed volume and shaped by the container) and gases (filling the container); "the solid state of water is called ice"
state
chemical science, chemistry - the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions
chemical phenomenon - any natural phenomenon involving chemistry (as changes to atoms or molecules)
phase, form - (physical chemistry) a distinct state of matter in a system; matter that is identical in chemical composition and physical state and separated from other material by the phase boundary; "the reaction occurs in the liquid phase of the system"
liquid state, liquidity, liquidness, liquid - the state in which a substance exhibits a characteristic readiness to flow with little or no tendency to disperse and relatively high incompressibility
solid state, solidness, solid - the state in which a substance has no tendency to flow under moderate stress; resists forces (such as compression) that tend to deform it; and retains a definite size and shape
gas, gaseous state - the state of matter distinguished from the solid and liquid states by: relatively low density and viscosity; relatively great expansion and contraction with changes in pressure and temperature; the ability to diffuse readily; and the spontaneous tendency to become distributed uniformly throughout any container
plasma - (physical chemistry) a fourth state of matter distinct from solid or liquid or gas and present in stars and fusion reactors; a gas becomes a plasma when it is heated until the atoms lose all their electrons, leaving a highly electrified collection of nuclei and free electrons; "particles in space exist in the form of a plasma"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Mentioned in ?
References in classic literature ?
This was the state of matters, on the afternoon of, what I may be excused for calling, that eventful and important Friday.
View in context
Mason, astonished and distressed as you may suppose, revealed the real state of matters. Your uncle, I am sorry to say, is now on a sick bed; from which, considering the nature of his disease--decline--and the stage it has reached, it is unlikely he will ever rise.
View in context
To describe the collective behaviour of quark matter, physicists generally employ equations of state, which relate the pressure of a state of matter to other state properties.
Neutron Stars Cast Light on Quark Matter
However, although interferometers have enabled us to make very small measurements that wouldn't have been possible using any other technique, they contain a source of error - one that is the product of an inherent imbalance in an exotic state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate.
A Technique To Increase Accuracy Of Gravity Measurements
The award notes that "Thomson X-ray scattering is based on the interaction of electromagnetic waves, such as light, with free electrons, and is used to determine the properties of matter that has been heated and compressed to high temperatures and/or pressures, and is especially powerful in sensing the temperature of plasma--the high-temperature state of matter in which electrons and nuclei move independently of each other.
Siegfried Glenzer chosen for DOE 2013 Lawrence award
To observe and test them in the lab, the researchers created a quantum system - a magnetic field of a cloud of rubidium atoms in a state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate.
Scientists engineer 'elusive' magnetic monopole in quantum system
Plasma is a state of matter, or a physical form that a substance can take.
States of matter
A large, single-arm, electromagnetic calorimeter for the ALICE detector (a large ion collider) has been built to collide two beams of lead ions and generate a quark-gluon plasma--the state of matter hypothesized to exist at the beginning of the universe.
Investigating the universe's origin
It's not even a plasma, the fourth state of matter found in high-energy experiments and on the sun.
A light delay
Hallmarks of an exotic, predicted state of matter called a supersolid have been spotted in a gas of ultracold rubidium atoms.
Exotic state of matter shows up in ultracold gas of rubidium atoms: supersolid acts like a solid and superfluid simultaneously

Dictionary browser ?
Full browser ?