dilatant

[dih-leyt-nt, dahy-]

adjective

1. dilating; expanding.

2. Physical Chemistry.,  exhibiting an increase in volume on being changed in shape, owing to a wider spacing between particles.

3. Petrology.,  (of rock) exhibiting an increase in volume owing to rearrangement and recrystallization of constituent grains.

dilatant

/ dɪ-, daɪˈleɪtənt /

adjective

1. tending to dilate; dilating

2. physics of, concerned with, or exhibiting dilatancy

noun

1. something, such as a catheter, that causes dilation

Other Word Forms

• dilatancy noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of dilatant¹

1835–45; < Latin dīlātant- (stem of dīlātāns ), present participle of dīlātāre to dilate; -ant

Example Sentences

Over the weekend, a writer at the Dilatant Pharma blog reminded us that three drugs have already been approved in the U.S. without clinical trials for the indication, and that they anticipate ZMapp could be investigated under this special provision.

Read more on Forbes

Among the projects that will make the trip on Sunday is one from middle school students in Santa Monica, Calif., who want to know whether Silly Putty — a non-Newtonian dilatant fluid, in scientific terms — will have different properties in the weightlessness of space than it has on Earth.

Read more on New York Times

He became interested in dilatant materials, whose unique flowing and locking molecular bond was discovered in the '50s.

Read more on Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• extensive 
• far-reaching 
• inclusive 
• wide-ranging