Meaning & use
physical change
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Meanings
nouncountablechemistrytechnical
A change in the shape, size, state or appearance of a substance in which the substance itself stays chemically the same.
Grammar: Takes an article or plural: a physical change, physical changes.
Patterns
- undergo a physical change
- a physical change in something
Melting an ice cube is a physical change, because the water is still water.
Cutting paper into small pieces is a physical change that you can easily see.
Dissolving sugar in tea is a physical change, and you can get the sugar back by evaporating the water.
nounusually plural
A change in a person's body, such as growth or the effects of age.
Grammar: Often plural, referring to what happens to the body: physical changes during puberty.
Patterns
- physical changes in someone
Teenagers go through many physical changes as they grow.
The doctor asked about any physical changes since the surgery.
Pregnancy brings a series of physical changes.
Word forms
| plural | physical changes |
|---|
Common combinations
- undergo a physical change
- Water undergoes a physical change when it freezes.
- reversible physical change
- Melting is a reversible physical change.
- physical change versus chemical change
- The lesson compared physical change versus chemical change using candle wax.
- a simple physical change
- Crushing a can is a simple physical change.
- physical change of state
- Evaporation is a physical change of state from liquid to gas.
Synonyms and how they differ
- change of state
- Change of state refers only to shifts between solid, liquid and gas, whereas a physical change also includes cutting, bending or dissolving.
- phase change
- Phase change is the technical term for a shift between states of matter and is narrower than physical change.
- transformation
- Transformation is a general word for any big change and does not say whether the substance stays chemically the same.
Opposites
Word family
- physical adjective
- relating to matter or the body
- physically adverb
- in a bodily or material way
- chemical change noun
- a change that makes a new substance
- physics noun
- the science of matter and energy
Commonly confused: physical change or chemical change?
physical change vs chemical change
A chemical change produces a new substance, as when iron rusts or wood burns. A physical change leaves the substance chemically the same.
Practice
Which of these is a physical change?
Choose one answer.
Melting wax changes its state but the wax is still wax. Rusting, toasting and burning all create new substances, so they are chemical changes.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “physical change”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.