exothermic

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,716 of 15,258leans written

Exothermic means giving out heat as it reacts. An exothermic reaction, strongly exothermic, exothermic and fast.

Burning is the obvious case, but so is setting concrete, which is why a large pour has to be cooled. The opposite is endothermic, which takes heat in, and an instant cold pack works that way.

Definitions of exothermic

1adjectiveexothermicGiving out heat as it reacts.C1
“The hand warmers use an exothermic reaction, so they get hot as soon as you open the packet.”

exothermic is a quality.

Where it comes from

French exothermique is exo-, outside, plus thermique, of heat, both from Greek.

French
exothermique
English, today
exothermic

Built from

exo- · French — outside
thermique · French — of heat

From French exothermique, from exo- (“outside”) + thermique (“of heat”), both ultimately from Ancient Greek -. by surface analysis, exo- + -thermic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Chemistry & Elements

Practise this word

exothermic in the wild

The term exothermic was coined by 19th-century French chemist Marcellin Berthelot.
Exothermic process
The opposite of an exothermic process is an endothermic process, one that absorbs energy, usually in the form of heat.
Exothermic process
Thus, endo in endothermic refers to energy or heat going in, and exo in exothermic refers to energy or heat going out.
Endothermic process
Endothermic reactions absorb heat, while exothermic reactions release heat.
Thermochemistry
Most of the spectacular chemical reactions that are demonstrated in classrooms are exothermic and exergonic.
Exothermic reaction

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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.

Related words

the thermique family

exothermic endothermic

exothermic — used about once every 81,824 pages · #14,716 · point at the bar for the others

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