Meaning & use
hermetic seal
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A closure so tight that no air, gas or liquid can pass in or out of a container.
Grammar: Countable: the lid forms a hermetic seal; two hermetic seals protect the sensor.
Patterns
- a hermetic seal on something
- form a hermetic seal
The jar lid creates a hermetic seal that keeps the jam fresh for months.
Engineers tested the hermetic seal on the satellite's fuel tank.
Without a hermetic seal, moisture would ruin the electronics inside the watch.
nouncountablefigurative
A complete separation from outside influence, used figuratively for a closed-off group or situation.
Grammar: Often used figuratively with a place or group: a hermetic seal around the project.
Patterns
- a hermetic seal around something
The company kept a hermetic seal around the product launch, so nothing leaked.
The village lived in a kind of hermetic seal, untouched by tourism.
Word forms
| plural | hermetic seals |
|---|
Common combinations
- create a hermetic seal
- The vacuum pump helps create a hermetic seal inside the package.
- break the hermetic seal
- Do not break the hermetic seal until the medicine is needed.
- tight hermetic seal
- A tight hermetic seal keeps oxygen out of the sample tube.
- hermetic seal on a container
- The hermetic seal on the container was still intact after the flood.
- glass-to-metal hermetic seal
- A glass-to-metal hermetic seal protects the sensor from damp.
Synonyms and how they differ
- airtight seal
- Airtight seal is the plain everyday phrase, whereas hermetic seal sounds more technical and implies stricter testing.
- vacuum seal
- A vacuum seal specifically has the air removed, while a hermetic seal only needs to stop things passing through.
- watertight seal
- Watertight only guarantees liquid cannot get through, but hermetic also blocks gases.
Opposites
Word family
- hermetic adjective
- completely airtight
- hermetically adverb
- in an airtight way, as in hermetically sealed
- seal verb
- to close something so nothing gets through
Commonly confused: hermetic seal or hermit?
hermetic seal vs hermit
A hermit is a person who lives alone. The words look similar but are unrelated in meaning, although hermetic and hermit have different Greek origins.
Practice
The spacecraft's cabin needs a hermetic ____ to keep the air inside.
Choose one answer.
A hermetic seal is airtight. The other nouns are parts of a building or cabin but do not combine with hermetic in this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hermetic seal”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.