Meaning & use
vaporization
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Meanings
noununcountablephysicschemistry
The change of a liquid or solid into a gas, whether slowly at its surface or quickly when it boils.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: vaporization occurs at the surface; with of for the substance: the vaporization of water.
Patterns
- the vaporization of something
- vaporization occurs at something
The vaporization of water takes a great deal of heat energy.
A fine mist cools the room because its vaporization draws warmth from the air.
In the experiment, students measured the rate of vaporization of different liquids.
noununcountablefigurative
The total destruction of something by extreme heat or force so that nothing solid remains.
Grammar: Used for dramatic, often fictional destruction: the vaporization of the target.
Patterns
- the vaporization of something
The film shows the vaporization of a whole city by a laser weapon.
Scientists calculated that the meteor's vaporization would occur before it reached the ground.
The sudden vaporization of the metal wire produced a bright flash.
Common combinations
- heat of vaporization
- The heat of vaporization of water is unusually high.
- rate of vaporization
- Wind increases the rate of vaporization from a wet surface.
- cause vaporization
- Intense heat can cause vaporization of a metal.
- rapid vaporization
- Rapid vaporization of the fuel created a cloud of vapor.
- vaporization point
- Each liquid has its own vaporization point under a given pressure.
Synonyms and how they differ
- evaporation
- Evaporation is the slow, surface-only form of vaporization, so it is narrower than vaporization.
- boiling
- Boiling is vaporization throughout a liquid at its boiling point, so it is one type of vaporization.
- volatilization
- Volatilization is a more specialist term, often used for substances escaping into the air in chemistry or environmental science.
- sublimation
- Sublimation is the particular case where a solid turns straight into gas without becoming liquid.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: vaporization or evaporation?
vaporization vs evaporation
Evaporation happens only at a liquid's surface and at any temperature, while vaporization is the wider term that also covers boiling.
Practice
Boiling is one kind of ___, in which a liquid turns to gas throughout its volume.
Choose one answer.
Vaporization is the general change from liquid to gas, and boiling is one form of it. Condensation is the opposite change, from gas to liquid.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “vaporization”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.