Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Composed of or disposed in laminæ, or thin plates or layers; lamellar.
  • Having or being a lamina or laminæ; laminate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective In, or consisting of, thin plates or layers; having the form of a thin plate or lamina.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of fluid motion, smooth and regular, flowing as though in different layers
  • adjective In, or consisting of, thin plates or layers.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective arranged in or consisting of laminae

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin lamina.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word laminar.

Examples

  • ROSS: We use what we call a laminar flow, a very smooth flow that's very close to the surface of the orbiter's underbelly to provide additional insulation.

    CNN Transcript Aug 2, 2005 2005

  • The P-51/F-51 was the first aircraft to employ the NACA’s so-called laminar flow airfoil and could dive to around Mach 0.8.

    First Man James R. Hansen 2005

  • The P-51/F-51 was the first aircraft to employ the NACA’s so-called laminar flow airfoil and could dive to around Mach 0.8.

    First Man James R. Hansen 2005

  • The P-51/F-51 was the first aircraft to employ the NACA’s so-called laminar flow airfoil and could dive to around Mach 0.8.

    First Man James R. Hansen 2005

  • The P-51/F-51 was the first aircraft to employ the NACA’s so-called laminar flow airfoil and could dive to around Mach 0.8.

    First Man James R. Hansen 2005

  • (18-23 miles) per hour -- the airflow becomes smooth, or "laminar," which instantly boosts the air's braking effect, sometimes by as much as 150 percent.

    Yahoo! News: Latest news headlines News Headlines | Top Stories 2010

  • (18-23 miles) per hour -- the airflow becomes smooth, or "laminar," which instantly boosts the air's braking effect, sometimes by as much as 150 percent.

    The Age News Headlines 2010

  • But driving from Laramie to Centennial on a windy day when the sky was filled with stretched-out laminar wave clouds I saw to the west, in the direction of the distant property, one cloud in the shape of an immense bird, the head and beak, the breast looming over the Rockies.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • She found that property one windy day, when she was driving west from Laramie and "the sky was filled with stretched-out laminar wave clouds."

    Undone by a house of dreams Marie Arana 2011

  • She found that property one windy day, when she was driving west from Laramie and "the sky was filled with stretched-out laminar wave clouds."

    Undone by a house of dreams Marie Arana 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "Dr. Louis W. Uccellini, director of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and an expert on snowstorms, compares what was happening on the ground as the cold front came through to the smoke and ash roiling through the canyons of lower Manhattan after the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001: 'It was not a laminar flow in which the currents move in parallel layers, but a flow moving in turbulent eddies. The turbulence behind this front must have been incredible. The air was rolling over at the same time that it was coming down. The effect was like putting the snow and ice in a grinder. The turbulence pulverized the snow to talcum powder as it entered the last mile or so of the atmosphere above the ground.'"

    —David Laskin, The Children's Blizzard (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 130

    November 11, 2008

  • Poor Eddy.

    November 11, 2008

  • Iroquoisy. I was just watching a video about "Characteristics of Laminar and Turbulent Flow" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIHVh3cIujU) and thought I'd come over here and see if there were any interesting citations or comments. That's not the iroquoisy part. The iroquoisy part is that I'm writing this on September 11, 2012.

    September 11, 2012