colloidal

American  

[kuh-loid-l] / kəˈlɔɪd l /

adjective

Physical Chemistry.

1. pertaining to or of the nature of a colloid.

   colloidal gold and silver.

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colloidal British  

/ ˌkɒˈlɔɪdəl /

adjective

1. of, denoting, or having the character of a colloid

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Other Word Forms

• colloidality
  noun
• noncolloidal
  adjective
• semicolloidal
  adjective
• colloidally
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of colloidal

First recorded in 1860–65; colloid + -al ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

colloidal

Light programmable colloidal crystals may eventually enable reconfigurable optical coatings, adaptive sensors, and next generation display and data storage technologies, where patterns and functions are defined dynamically by illumination rather than fixed during manufacturing.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 2, 2026

Physicists at Leipzig University have now created a type of neural network that works not with electricity but with so-called active colloidal particles.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 29, 2024

Secondly, flexible DNA provides additional degrees of freedom in the assembly of non-space-filling polyhedral nanoparticles, leading to the creation of complex crystals with symmetries not previously achievable with colloidal crystal engineering with DNA.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 18, 2024

Before Paltrow, libertarians gravitated toward colloidal silver in the early aughts in part thanks to a man named Stan Jones, who also turned blue from ingesting too much colloidal silver.

From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2024

There are moreover many properties common to colloidal solutions and suspensions of fine powders, such as kaolin, mastic, charcoal, or Indian ink.

From The Mechanism of Life by Stéphane Leduc

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