emit

UK/iˈmɪt/US/iˈmɪt/

verbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,287 of 15,258neutralformal · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: emitted, emits, emitting

To emit is to send out light, sound, heat or gas. Something leaves the thing and goes into the world.

It is formal and technical, and it belongs to physics, engineering and environmental writing, where emitting carbon dioxide is the subject of every climate policy. The noun emission is used constantly in the plural for pollution. It also covers sounds a person makes, so emitting a groan is a deliberately clinical way of describing it. Give off is the everyday equivalent.

Definitions of emit

1verbemitTo send out light, heat, gas or sound.B2+
“The lamp will emit almost no heat at all.”

Also accepted in games: give off, release

Where it comes from

Latin
ēmittō
English, today
emit

Borrowed from Latin ēmittō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 29 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

emit in the wild

An emission nebula is a nebula formed of ionized gases that emit light of various wavelengths.
Emission nebula
The primary path of production of 234U via nuclear decay is as follows: uranium-238 nuclei emit an alpha particle to become thorium-234.
Uranium-234
Finally, 234Pa or 234mPa nuclei emit another beta particle to become 234U nuclei.
Uranium-234
More recently, some physicists have developed a fiber optic based system which they believe will emit Hawking radiation.
Optical black hole

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the ēmittō family

emission emit

emit — used about once every 8,568 pages · #11,287 · point at the bar for the others

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