Dictionary:

liquid

  (lĭk'wĭd)

1. 1. The state of matter in which a substance exhibits a characteristic readiness to flow, little or no tendency to disperse, and relatively high incompressibility.
   2. Matter or a specific body of matter in this state.
2. Linguistics. A consonant articulated without friction and capable of being prolonged like a vowel, such as English l and r.

1. Of or being a liquid.
2. Having been liquefied, especially:
   1. Melted by heating: liquid wax.
   2. Condensed by cooling: liquid oxygen.
3. Flowing readily; fluid: added milk to make the batter more liquid.
4. Having a flowing quality without harshness or abrupt breaks: liquid prose; the liquid movements of a Balinese dancer.
5. Linguistics. Articulated without friction and capable of being prolonged like a vowel.
6. Clear and shining: the liquid brown eyes of a spaniel.
7. Readily convertible into cash: liquid assets.

[From Middle English, of a liquid, from Old French liquide, from Latin liquidus, from liquēre, to be liquid.]

A state of matter intermediate between that of crystalline solids and gases. Macroscopically, liquids are distinguished from crystalline solids in their capacity to flow under the action of extremely small shear stresses and to conform to the shape of a confining vessel. Liquids differ from gases in possessing a free surface and in lacking the capacity to expand without limit. On the scale of molecular dimensions liquids lack the long-range order that characterizes the crystalline state, but nevertheless they possess a degree of structural regularity that extends over distances of a few molecular diameters. In this respect, liquids are wholly unlike gases, whose molecular organization is completely random.

Liquids possess important transport properties, notably their capacity to transmit heat (thermal conductivity), to transfer momentum under shear stresses (viscosity), and to attain a state of homogeneous composition when mixed with other miscible liquids (diffusion). These nonequilibrium properties of liquids are well understood in macroscopic terms and are exploited in large-scale engineering and chemical-process operations. See also Gas.

Having cash or assets readily convertible into cash. A business entity is said to be liquid when it has cash or near-cash assets that are adequate to satisfy short-term liabilities when due.

Definition: fluid, flowing, melting
Antonyms: close, condensed, dense, firm, gaseous, hard, solid

adj

Definition: readily available
Antonyms: frozen, tied up, unavailable

n

Definition: fluid
Antonyms: solid

For more information on liquid, visit Britannica.com.

A phase of matter in which atoms or molecules can move freely while remaining in contact with one another. A liquid takes the shape of its container. (Compare gas and solid.)

1. a substance that flows readily in its natural state.
2. flowing readily; neither solid nor gaseous.

• l. diet — a diet limited to the intake of liquids or foods that can be changed to a liquid state.
• l. nitrogen — compressed nitrogen in liquid form; used as a supercoolant in freezing semen, and in cryosurgery.
• l. paraffin, l. petrolatum — see mineral oil.

A liquid will usually assume the shape of its container

A diagram of how the configuration of molecules/atoms differs for the solid, liquid, and gas phases.

A typical phase diagram. The dotted line gives the anomalous behaviour of water. The green lines show how the freezing point can vary with pressure, and the blue line shows how the boiling point can vary with pressure. The red line shows the boundary where sublimation or deposition can occur.

Liquid is one of the four principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material.

Characteristics

A liquid's shape is determined by, not confined to, the container it fills. That is to say, liquid particles (normally molecules or clusters of molecules) are free to move within the volume, but they form a discrete surface that may not necessarily be the same as the vessel. The same cannot be said about a gas; it can also be considered a fluid, but it must conform to the shape of the container entirely.

At a temperature below the boiling point, a liquid will evaporate until, if in a closed container, the concentration of the vapors belonging to the liquid reach an equilibrium partial pressure in the gas. Therefore no liquid can exist permanently in a complete vacuum. The surface of the liquid behaves as an elastic membrane in which surface tension appears, allowing the formation of drops and bubbles. Capillarity is another consequence of surface tension. Only liquids can display immiscibility. The most familiar mixture of two immiscible liquids in everyday life are the vegetable oil and water in Italian salad dressing. A familiar set of miscible liquids are water and alcohol. Only liquids display wetting properties. Liquids at their respective boiling point change to gases (except when superheating occurs), and at their freezing points, change to solids (except when supercooling occurs). Even below the boiling point liquid evaporates on the surface. Objects immersed in liquids are subject to the phenomenon of buoyancy, which is also observed in other fluids, but is especially strong in liquids due to their high density. Liquid components in a mixture can often be separated from one another via fractional distillation.

The volume of a quantity of liquid is fixed by its temperature and pressure. Unless this volume exactly matches the volume of the container, a surface is observed. Liquids in a gravitational field, like all fluids, exert pressure on the sides of a container as well as on anything within the liquid itself. This pressure is transmitted in all directions and increases with depth. In the study of fluid dynamics, liquids are often treated as incompressible, especially when studying incompressible flow.

If a liquid is at rest in a uniform gravitational field, the pressure at any point is given by

where:

= the density of the liquid (assumed constant)

= gravity

= the depth of the point below the surface.

Note that this formula assumes that the pressure at the free surface is zero, and that surface tension effects may be neglected.

Liquids generally expand when heated, and contract when cooled. Water between 0 °C and 4 °C is a notable exception; this is why ice floats. Liquids have little compressibility : water, for example, does not change its density appreciably unless subject to pressure of the order of hundreds bar.

Examples of everyday liquids besides water are mineral oil and gasoline. There are also mixtures such as milk, blood, and a wide variety of aqueous solutions such as household bleach. Only six elements are liquid at room temperature and pressure: bromine, mercury, francium, cesium, gallium and rubidium.^[1] In terms of planetary habitability, liquid water is required for the existence of life.

Liquid measures

Quantities of liquids are commonly measured in units of volume. These include the litre, not an SI unit, and the cubic metre (m³) which is an SI unit.

See also

• Ripple (physics)
• Multiphasic liquid
• Viscosity
• Surface tension
• Sonoluminescence, emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound.

Notes

1. ^ Liquid Elements

Phases of Matter (list)
Solid • Liquid • Gas • Plasma • Colloid • Supercritical fluid • Superfluid • Supersolid • Degenerate matter • Quark-gluon plasma • Fermionic condensate • Bose–Einstein condensate • Strange matter • Melting point • Boiling point • Triple point • Critical point • Equation of state • Cooling curve

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - flydende, likvid, let realisabel, væskeformig, klar, strålende, blød
n. - væske, likvid

idioms:

• liquid assets    letomsættelige aktiver
• liquid crystal display    LCD-display, flydende krystaldisplay
• liquid measure    mål for flydende varer

Nederlands (Dutch)
vocht, vloeistof, lang aangehouden medeklinker, vloeibaar, liquide, invorderbaar, nat, glashelder, opdoekend, niet vaststaand, waterig

Français (French)
adj. - liquide, clair
n. - liquide, (Phon) liquide

idioms:

• liquid assets    avoirs liquides, liquidités
• liquid crystal display    affichage à cristaux liquides
• liquid measure    mesure de capacité des liquides

Deutsch (German)
n. - Flüssigkeit, Liquida (Fließlaut)
adj. - flüssig, liquid, verfügbar

idioms:

• liquid assets    (Fin.) liquide Mittel
• liquid crystal display    Flüssigkristallanzeige
• liquid measure    Flüssigkeitsmaß

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - υγρό, ρευστό
adj. - υγρός, ρευστός, διαυγής, διάφανος, γλυκός, αρμονικός, απαλός
attrib. - υγρός

idioms:

• liquid assets    (οικον.) διαθέσιμα, ρευστοποιήσιμα στοιχεία του ενεργητικού
• liquid crystal display    (Η/Υ) οθόνη υγρών κρυστάλλων
• liquid measure    μέτρο χωρητικότητας ρευστών

Italiano (Italian)
liquido

idioms:

• liquid assets    disponibilità finanziarie
• liquid crystal display    schermo a cristalli liquidi
• liquid measure    misura di volume

Português (Portuguese)
n., -
adj. - líquido (m)

idioms:

• liquid assets    patrimônio (m) líquido (Fin.)
• liquid crystal display    mostrador (m) de cristal líquido (Téc.) (Eletrôn.)
• liquid measure    medida de líquido

Русский (Russian)
жидкость, жидкий, прозрачный, плавный, непостоянный, ликвидный

idioms:

• liquid assets    ликвидное имущество
• liquid crystal display    дисплей на жидких кристаллах
• liquid measure    мера жидкости

Español (Spanish)
adj. - líquido, fluido, solvente
n. - líquido, consonante líquida

idioms:

• liquid assets    activo circulante, activo líquido
• liquid crystal display    visualizador de cristal líquido
• liquid measure    medida para líquidos

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - vätska, spad, (fonet.) likvida
adj. - flytande, i vätskeform, (poet.) vatten-, våt, klar, genomskinlig, smekande, smältande, (bildl.) vacklande, lös, inte fast, (hand.) likvid, disponibel, (jur.) ostridig, (fonet.) likvida
attr. - flytande, i vätskeform, (poet.) vatten-

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
液体的, 透明的, 清澈的, 液体, 流音, 流体

idioms:

• liquid assets    流动资产
• liquid crystal display    液晶显示器
• liquid measure    液量单位

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 液體的, 透明的, 清澈的
n. - 液體, 流音, 流體

idioms:

• liquid assets    流動資產
• liquid crystal display    液晶顯示器
• liquid measure    液量單位

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 액체의, 유동성의, 맑은, 듣기 쉬운 , 불안정한
n. - 액체 , 유동체, 유음

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 液体, 流体, 流音
adj. - 液状の, 流動体の, 流動性の, 不安定な, 融通のきく, 透明な, 流音の, 液体の

idioms:

• liquid assets    流動資産
• liquid crystal display    液晶ディスプレイ, 液晶表示
• liquid measure    液量

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) السائل, مادة سائله, حرف صامت ملفوظ بلفظ Y أو L (صفه) سائل أو مائع, سائل نفدي, رخيم (صفه) عذب, سلس, مائع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮נוזלי, שוטף, נזיל, שקוף, צלול, זך, בהיר‬
n. - ‮נוזל‬

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