Meaning & use
conical tubing
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
Tubing shaped like a cone, wider at one end and narrower at the other, used in labs and machines to guide or measure flow.
Grammar: Usually uncountable, so no plural: say 'a piece of conical tubing' rather than 'a conical tubing'.
Patterns
- conical tubing for something
- a length of conical tubing
- connect something with conical tubing
The chemist fitted a short length of conical tubing to the flask before heating it.
Conical tubing carries the sample smoothly from the wide inlet to the narrow outlet.
They replaced the straight pipe with conical tubing to slow the flow gradually.
nouncountabletechnical
A single tube of this tapered shape, sold or used as one item.
Grammar: Countable when you mean one individual tube: 'a conical tubing', 'two conical tubings' (rare but possible in technical writing).
Patterns
- a conical tubing
- replace a conical tubing
Each conical tubing is labeled with its inner diameter.
He ordered three conical tubings of different lengths for the experiment.
Common combinations
- a length of conical tubing
- Cut a length of conical tubing about ten centimeters long.
- flexible conical tubing
- Flexible conical tubing bends around the pump without kinking.
- tapered conical tubing
- The tapered conical tubing narrows the stream as it leaves the nozzle.
- conical tubing connector
- Screw the conical tubing connector onto the outlet.
- glass conical tubing
- Glass conical tubing lets you watch the liquid move.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tapered tube
- The everyday term for the same shape; 'conical tubing' sounds more technical and is typical of lab or engineering writing.
- funnel tube
- Suggests a wide top that narrows sharply like a funnel, while conical tubing can taper gently along its whole length.
Word family
Commonly confused: conical tubing or conical tube? conical tubing or cylindrical tubing?
conical tubing vs conical tube
'Conical tube' means one tube; 'conical tubing' usually means the material or supply of such tubes, so the two are not always interchangeable.
conical tubing vs cylindrical tubing
Cylindrical tubing keeps the same width all along, while conical tubing changes width from one end to the other.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'conical tubing' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Conical tubing' is normally uncountable, so it fits as the object of 'chose' in sentence B. Option A treats it as one countable item without a unit word, C gives it a plural verb it cannot take, and D uses it as a verb, which it is not.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “conical tubing”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.