phases of matter

Cultural  

1. The states in which matter can exist: as a solid, liquid, or gas. When temperature changes, matter can undergo a phase change, shifting from one form to another. Examples of phase changes are melting (changing from a solid to a liquid), freezing (changing from a liquid to a solid), evaporation (changing from a liquid to a gas), and condensation (changing from a gas to a liquid). (See boiling point, condensation point, freezing point, melting point, triple point, and vaporization.)

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Example Sentences

The researchers hope that designing specific cavities will help them realize new and elusive phases of matter, and to better understand the delicate interplay between light and matter.

From Science Daily • Nov. 3, 2023

Most quantum phases of matter reveal their special properties only at cryogenic temperatures or other extreme conditions and revert to being very ordinary when they are exposed to the world outside the lab.

From Scientific American • Mar. 9, 2022

Matter most commonly exists as a solid, liquid, or gas; these states are known as the three common phases of matter.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

"We can't even answer the fundamental question of how many phases of matter exist," says Sean Hartnoll, a string theorist at Stanford University in California.

From Nature • Oct. 19, 2011

Porthos spoke these words with that heroic nature, which, with him, grew greater with all the phases of matter.

From The Vicomte de Bragelonne Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" by Dumas père, Alexandre