anneal

American  

[uh-neel] / əˈnil /

verb (used with object)

• anneals,
  present (3rd person singular)
• annealed,
  past participle,  past
• annealing
  present participle

1. to heat (glass, earthenware, metals, etc.) to remove or prevent internal stress.

2. to free from internal stress by heating and gradually cooling.

3. to toughen or temper.

4. Biochemistry. to recombine (nucleic acid strands) at low temperature after separating by heat.

5. to fuse colors onto (a vitreous or metallic surface) by heating.

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noun

1. an act, instance, or product of annealing.

anneal British  

/ əˈniːl /

verb

1. to temper or toughen (something) by heat treatment

2. to subject to or undergo some physical treatment, esp heating, that removes internal stress, crystal defects, and dislocations

3. (tr) to toughen or strengthen (the will, determination, etc)

4. (often foll by out) physics to disappear or cause to disappear by a rearrangement of atoms

   defects anneal out at different temperatures

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noun

1. an act of annealing

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• annealer
  noun
• unannealed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• annealing
  present
• annealed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• anneal
  simple
• anneals
  simple
• have annealed
  perfect
• has annealed
  perfect
• am annealing
  progressive
• are annealing
  progressive
• is annealing
  progressive
• have been annealing
  perfect progressive
• has been annealing
  perfect progressive

Past

• annealed
  simple
• had annealed
  perfect
• was annealing
  progressive
• were annealing
  progressive
• had been annealing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will anneal
  simple
• will have annealed
  perfect
• will be annealing
  progressive
• will have been annealing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of anneal

before 1000; Middle English anelen, Old English anǣlan to kindle, equivalent to an- on + ǣlan to burn, akin to āl fire

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Explanation

When you anneal metal or glass, you heat it and then cool it in order to make it less brittle and more malleable. Metallurgists — engineers who specialize in the properties and uses of metals — have to know a variety of methods used to anneal different kinds of metals. You can also anneal glass, to make it stronger and to help keep it from shattering.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

anneal anneals annealed annealing

The foreign DNA and vector are allowed to anneal.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

The tone of the letter seems, to this reader, overly filled with shame, but it works to anneal the injury.

From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2021

But in the alkaline waters of these springs, the carbonate in the water will anneal to the shell of a snail, causing snail shells to grow increasingly heavy and unwieldy.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 23, 2017

Pronk, S. & Frenkel, D. Can stacking faults in hard-sphere crystals anneal out spontaneously?

From Nature ● Nov. 7, 2017

Perhaps Rekh would now let him make leaves every day, perhaps allow him to anneal wire, spread solder just so on the boxes, and learn and become skillful.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

The process of PCR anneals DNA molecules to complementary DNA strands, which maintains the same amount of DNA.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

One who, or that which, blanches or whitens; esp., one who anneals and cleanses money; also, a chemical preparation for this purpose.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster

The baking not only anneals the wire, but reduces the shellac to a hard and highly insulating mass.

From On Laboratory Arts by Richard Threlfall

They used MAPS, or microporous annealed particle scaffolds.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

Gonzalez-Torres and Laycock had seen and loved an earlier work by Horn — a thin, crumpled sheet of annealed gold.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 28, 2022

A child of wartime Italy annealed by harsh experience — he starved and was temporarily blinded in boyhood by unexploded ordnance — Mr. Armani possesses plenty of backbone.

From New York Times ● Jun. 23, 2021

The essence of the London story is retained, with stouthearted Buck being annealed by adversity, overcoming brutality, confusion and loneliness and then responding to the kindness of Thornton to become the leader of the pack.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 19, 2020

I would have made a better choice than Travis, now that I had been annealed in the furnace of the Scientific Method.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly

After reaching the desired orientation, the team used an annealing process designed specifically for the material.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026

The company was exploring gate-based models early on, but abandoned those efforts in favor of differentiating itself through its focus on annealing, which has since become its bread and butter.

From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 2026

Veeco sells technologies for ion-beam deposition and laser annealing, which are essential in manufacturing semiconductors and packaging advanced chips.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 28, 2026

Barron’s previously reported that the deal appeared to be a way for D-Wave to deepen its exposure to gate-based quantum computing, an architecture with broader applications than D-Wave’s signature annealing quantum systems.

From Barron's ● Jan. 14, 2026

Ranofer waited until he thrust it into the fire for annealing, and made careful note of the exact dull red it reached before it was pulled out again.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

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