sublimation

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,284 of 15,258leans written

Sublimation is a solid turning straight into gas. The sublimation of dry ice, sublimation point, sublimation printing.

There is no liquid stage at all, which is what makes dry ice smoke rather than melt. Freeze-drying works by sublimation under vacuum, and in psychoanalysis the word means redirecting an urge into acceptable work.

Definitions of sublimation

1nounsublimationA solid turning straight into gas.C1
“On a sunny winter day, snow can disappear by sublimation without ever melting.”

sublimation is a change.

Where it comes from

Latin sublimare means to raise up, from sublimis, lofty.

Latin
sublīmō — to raise, to elevate
Medieval Latin
sublīmātiō
Middle English
sublimacioun
English, today
sublimation

From Middle English sublimacioun, sublimacion, from Medieval Latin sublīmātiō, from Latin sublīmō (“to raise, to elevate”). Synchronically, sublimate + ion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Chemistry & Elements

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sublimation in the wild

Helium-4 is unusual in that it has no sublimation/deposition curve and therefore no triple points where its solid phase meets its gas phase.
Triple point
The sublimation name was first applied because the dye was thought to make the transition between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage.
Dye-sublimation printing
Historically, "dye sublimation" referred to page printers that use a thermal printhead to transfer dye from a ribbon directly onto the print media via sublimation.
Dye-sublimation printing
The verb form of sublimation is sublime, or less preferably, sublimate.
Sublimation
Sublimate also refers to the product obtained by sublimation.
Sublimation

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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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