Meaning & use
evaporating dish
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountabletechnicalchemistry
A shallow porcelain or glass bowl used in a lab to heat liquids so they evaporate.
Grammar: Countable: one evaporating dish, two evaporating dishes.
Patterns
- an evaporating dish
- heat something in an evaporating dish
- place something in an evaporating dish
She poured the salt solution into an evaporating dish and warmed it gently.
The white crystals left in the evaporating dish were pure sodium chloride.
Always let an evaporating dish cool before you pick it up.
Word forms
| plural | evaporating dishes |
|---|
Common combinations
- heat something in an evaporating dish
- Heat the mixture in an evaporating dish until the water is gone.
- an evaporating dish of solution
- He placed an evaporating dish of salt solution over the flame.
- porcelain evaporating dish
- A porcelain evaporating dish can take much higher heat than glass.
- leave crystals in an evaporating dish
- The experiment leaves white crystals in the evaporating dish.
Synonyms and how they differ
- evaporating basin
- The British term for a similar shallow dish; 'evaporating dish' is the usual term in American labs.
- crucible
- A crucible is a deep cup for heating solids at very high temperatures, not a shallow dish for evaporating liquids.
Word family
- evaporate verb
- to change from a liquid into a gas
- evaporation noun
- the process of a liquid turning into a gas
Commonly confused: evaporating dish or Petri dish? evaporating dish or watch glass?
evaporating dish vs Petri dish
A Petri dish is a shallow lidded dish used to grow bacteria, not to evaporate liquids.
evaporating dish vs watch glass
A watch glass is a curved piece of glass used to cover a beaker or hold a little powder, not a deep dish for heating solutions.
Practice
A student wants to get salt crystals from salt water. What should the salt water be heated in?
Choose one answer.
An evaporating dish is the shallow bowl designed for heating a solution until the liquid evaporates and crystals remain. A Petri dish is for growing cultures and would crack over a flame, a measuring cylinder measures volume, and a test tube rack just holds tubes.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “evaporating dish”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.