emulsion

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,224 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: emulsions

An emulsion is tiny drops of one liquid spread through another. An emulsion of oil and water, emulsion paint, the emulsion split.

Oil and water do not mix, so something must hold them together: egg yolk does it in mayonnaise and mustard in a dressing. Emulsion paint is water-based and is what Britain paints walls with, where America says latex.

Definitions of emulsion

1nounemulsionTiny drops of one liquid spread through another.C1
“Whisk the oil slowly into the vinegar and mustard to make a smooth emulsion.”

emulsion is a mixture.

Where it comes from

New Latin emulsio comes from Latin emulgere, to milk out, since milk is an emulsion.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₂melǵ-
Latin
ēmulgeō — to milk out, extract
New Latin
ēmulsiō
French
émulsion
English, today
emulsion

French émulsion, from New Latin ēmulsiō, based on Latin ēmulgeō (“to milk out, extract”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Chemistry & Elements

Practise this word

emulsion in the wild

In an emulsion, one liquid (the dispersed phase) is dispersed in the other (the continuous phase).
Emulsion
Two liquids can form different types of emulsions.
Emulsion
A very short exposure is made, producing an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which can be chemically developed into a visible photograph.
Film stock
Later color films, like Kodacolor II, have as many as 12 emulsion layers, with upwards of 20 different chemicals in each layer.
Film stock
The garlic gives the sauce a pastier texture, making it more laborious to produce as the emulsion is harder to stabilise.
Aioli

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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.

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