Meaning & use
capillary tube
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnicalphysics
A glass or plastic tube with an extremely narrow bore, through which liquid can rise or flow on its own.
Grammar: Often used in lab work; the tube is typically thinner than a pencil lead.
Patterns
- a capillary tube of something
The students placed a capillary tube in the dye and watched the liquid climb.
A capillary tube can hold a drop of blood for testing.
Water rises higher in a thinner capillary tube.
nouncountabletechnical
A thin tube in a cooling system that controls the flow of refrigerant between parts of a refrigerator or air conditioner.
Grammar: Used in engineering, where it replaces a valve in small units.
The technician found a blockage in the capillary tube of the freezer.
A capillary tube lowers the pressure of the refrigerant before it enters the evaporator.
Word forms
| plural | capillary tubes |
|---|
Common combinations
- glass capillary tube
- She sealed one end of the glass capillary tube.
- fill a capillary tube
- Fill the capillary tube with the sample by touching it to the drop.
- capillary tube action
- Capillary tube action pulls the liquid upward.
- narrow capillary tube
- A narrow capillary tube lifts liquid higher.
Synonyms and how they differ
- micropipette
- A micropipette is a lab tool for measuring tiny liquid volumes, while a capillary tube is a simple passive tube.
- hairline tube
- Hairline tube is an informal description of how thin the tube is and is not a standard technical term.
- thin tube
- Thin tube is a general phrase and lacks the specific idea of liquid moving by capillary action.
Word family
- capillary noun
- a very small blood vessel, or a narrow tube
- capillary action noun
- the rise of liquid in narrow spaces
- capillarity noun
- the property that causes capillary action
- capillaries noun
- plural of capillary, tiny blood vessels
Commonly confused: capillary tube or capillary?
capillary tube vs capillary
A capillary alone often means a tiny blood vessel in the body, while a capillary tube is a narrow man-made tube used in labs and machines.
Practice
Why does liquid climb up a narrow capillary tube?
Choose one answer.
Capillary action, the attraction between liquid and the tube wall, pulls the liquid up. The other options do not explain the effect.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “capillary tube”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.