Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A surface-active substance.
- n. A substance composed of lipoprotein that is secreted by the alveolar cells of the lung and serves to maintain the stability of pulmonary tissue by reducing the surface tension of fluids that coat the lung.
Wiktionary
- n. chemistry A surface active agent, or wetting agent, capable of reducing the surface tension of a liquid; typically organic compounds having a hydrophilic "head" and a hydrophobic "tail".
- n. biochemistry A lipoprotein in the tissues of the lung that reduces surface tension and permits more efficient gas transport.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a chemical agent capable of reducing the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved
Etymologies
- surface-active agent (Wiktionary)
- surf(ace)-act(ive) + a(ge)nt. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Synthetic surfactant is used to help immature lungs rest and heal.”
“Dr. Avery ultimately identified a mix of fat and proteins in the lungs that came to be called surfactant.”
“Thanks to the March of Dimes, a substance called surfactant had been developed that helped a premature baby's undeveloped lungs work.”
“One educational way to employ a magnet to use it to purify water that has been contaminated with a surfactant, which is a material that can lower the surface tension in water.”
“= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Oxycyte oxygen carrier is a perfluorocarbon emulsified with water and a surfactant, which is provided to the patient intravenously.”
“Doctors had to give Cowan an emergency C-section and put the infant on a breathing tube, using a method called surfactant therapy, to allow Sara to breathe.”
“They are encased in water using a surfactant, which is similar to soap, and then spun in a centrifuge.”
“Your baby’s lungs mature, too, and begin to produce a substance called surfactant, which helps the tiny alveoli air sacs stay inflated after birth.”
“A "surfactant," technically, is a type of wetting agent that lowers surface tension between liquids - but we recognize surfactants more commonly in such products as dishwashing detergent or shampoo.”
“In addition, Midwifes are not able to intervene correctly in Emergency situations, and can only provide improvised care until an EMS unit arrives - no cardiac monitor, no ventilator, no ability to place advanced lines and do advanced IV therapy and advanced medications such as surfactant on the neonate and it's impossible outside of an isolette to provide a thermoregulatory environment for a critically ill neonate, and conditions such as gastroschesis, oomphalacele, diaphragmatic hernia, CHD, and others can be undetected until the baby is born.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘surfactant’.
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A Rarefaction of Factoids
List of genuine words and phrases containing the string fact-, -fact-, or -fact. Beginning with ventifact and stupefaction.
ventifact, stupefaction, fact, factoid, rarefaction, unsatisfactory, satisfactory, tumefaction, surfactant, artifact, benefactor, benefaction and 142 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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-ant
"Ant -- that's like, an animal right? So important ... importbear."
mordant, surfactant, rant, supplant, chant, plant, figurant, currant, flagrant, scant, savant, grant and 1 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Chained Bear's Favorite Words
peruvian, sparky, poop, etymological, fuck, whatnot, pulchritude, nosh, tetched, quotidian, squalid, trajectory and 388 more...
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Some new Wordie words this week
Don't tell them they are not real--they might cry.
glover, breakfront, submaximal, criticality, lanoline, mouthy, botheration, metaphorically, metaphase, disavowal, arum, ostentatiously and 162 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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Gilian's list
penultimate, bittersweet, tertiary, surfactant, perquisite, hereditament, chartreuse, vis-à-vis, cephalopod, eructation, hussy, glimpse and 16 more...
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senihele's Words
phantasmagoric, spectral, postlapsarian, exsanguinate, chimera, venesection, arcanum, pseudonymity, eschatology, ansible, sublunary, nepenthe and 55 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for surfactant.
yarb Me too. I love the tongue-tapping 't' at the end. Jun 11, 2008
chained_bear I like this word. Jun 11, 2008
recombinantdna I should think the difficulty of pronouncing it such would inconvenience you more than the pain of hearing it would me. Jun 11, 2008
Prolagus I'll pronounce it suTTTTTT, just to annoy you. Jun 10, 2008
recombinantdna I prefer it silent. But then, I have professor-worship issues: however they say, goes. Jun 10, 2008
bilby I pronounce myself also a pronouncer. Jun 4, 2008
mollusque I pronounce it. Jun 4, 2008
recombinantdna (SURF)ace (ACT)ive (A)ge(NT)
No one seems to pronounce a /t/ at the end, leaving the ending closer to the /In/ seen in so many hormones. Jun 3, 2008