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molten

UK/ˈmɒltən/US/ˈmoʊltən/
adjectiveB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,839 of 15,258neutral

Molten means melted by great heat. Molten metal, molten rock, molten glass.

It is used only of substances that are solid at ordinary temperatures — molten iron, molten lava, molten chocolate — and never of ice or butter, which merely melt. That restriction is what gives the word its heat. Note that molten is the old past participle of melt, kept as an adjective while melted took over the verb, which is the same pattern as sodden, drunken and shaven.

Definitions of molten

  1. 1adjectivemoltenMelted by great heat.B2+

    “Molten iron runs at about fifteen hundred degrees.”

molten is a state of being melted.

Where it comes from

Old English molten is the past participle of meltan, to melt. English kept it as an adjective and built melted for the verb, exactly as with sodden and seethe.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *(s)meld-

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *multanaz

  3. Old English

    molten

  4. Middle English

    molten

  5. English, today

    molten

Built from

  • ġemolten · Old English — melted, molten

From Middle English molten, from Old English molten, ġemolten (“melted, molten”), from Proto-Germanic multanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic meltaną (“to melt”). Cognate with Scots moltin, Swedish multen.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

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molten in the wild

  • The Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) was an experimental molten-salt reactor research reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

    Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment

  • The liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR; often pronounced lifter) is a type of molten salt reactor.

    Liquid fluoride thorium reactor

  • LFTRs use the thorium fuel cycle with a fluoride-based molten (liquid) salt for fuel.

    Liquid fluoride thorium reactor

  • The solid volcanic rock resulting from subsequent cooling of the molten material is often also called lava.

    Lava

  • FLiBe is a molten salt made from a mixture of lithium fluoride (LiF) and beryllium fluoride (BeF2).

    FLiBe

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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.