evaporation

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
The annual precipitation on that coast is twenty-seven inches, and as the evaporation is about the same, he argues that rain-water does not penetrate far beneath the surface of the dunes, and concludes that their humidity can be explained only by evaporation from below.

View all »
Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

  1. The act of resolving or the state of being resolved into vapor; the conversion of a solid or liquid by heat into vapor, fumes, or steam; vaporization. The process of evaporation is constantly going on at the surface of the earth, but principally at the surface of the sea and other bodies of water. The vapor thus formed, being specifically lighter than atmospheric air, rises to considerable heights above the earth's surface, and afterward, by a partial condensation, forms clouds, and finally descends in rain. The effect of evaporation is to reduce the temperature of the evaporating surface, and the evaporation of certain volatile liquids, such as ether, produces an intense degree of cold. Evaporation by direct heat (boiling down) is often practised on fluids, especially in pharmacy and cookery, in order to reduce them to a denser consistence, or to obtain in a dry and separate state the fixed matters contained in them. So in pestilent fevers, the intention is to expel the infection by sweat and evaporation. Bacon, Nat. Hist., § 968. In the seven last months of the year 1688, the evaporation amounted to 22 inches 5 lines; but the rain only to 11 inches 6¾ lines. Derham, Physico-Theology, i. 5, note 7.
  2. The matter evaporated or exhaled; vapor. [Rare.] They are but the fruits of adusted choler, and the evaporations of a vindictive spirit. Howell, Dodona's Grove. Evaporations are … greater according to the greater heat of the sun. Woodward.
  3. In algebra, the disappearance of a solution of a system of equations by passing off to infinity. Thus, the solution of the two equations x—ky = a and x—y = b, which disappears when k = 1, is said to pass off by evaporation.
2 more from this dictionary »

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • It can be reduced through evaporation, which is done by simmering and skimming until it takes on a syrupy consistency; the flavors, though, become highly concentrated. —  Artvoice - Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
  • Their shape encourages evaporation, which is why skillets excel at searing, browning and sauce reduction. —  The Seattle Times
  • Using a back-of-the-envelope estimation applying. 06\% evaporation rate to the world's 8.7 BAF of reservoir stored water yields 522 MAF of evaporation which is about 2.5 years of total California rainfall and 16 years of California water draws for agriculture. —  Dissident Voice
  • Not so, says Roderick: "It turns out that the dominant force in evaporation is the energy of sunlight itself - photons hitting the surface of the water and tearing away water molecules, not the air temperature." —  RealClimate
  • The amount of pan evaporation is a measure of all these factors summed together over a period of time. —  RealClimate
More examples »
 

Tags

evaporation hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 191 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French évaporation = Provencal evaporacio = Spanish evaporacion = Portuguese evaporação = Italian evaporazione, from Latin evaporatio(n-), from evaporare, disperse in vapor: see vapor, evaporate.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

If you'd like to prod us on getting a pronunciation for this word, sign in (or sign up) and let us know.

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a month.

Recently looked up

retribution · gruesome · weld · retract · lab

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

qualms · poofter · oh for heaven's sake · embodies · silence