adjective
Other Word Forms
- gaseity noun
- gaseousness noun
- nongaseous adjective
- nongaseousness noun
- pseudogaseous adjective
- quasi-gaseous adjective
Etymology
Origin of gaseous
Explanation
Describe the form of a substance that's not solid or liquid as gaseous. Gaseous matter will expand to fit an entire container, and it has no volume and no shape. Use the adjective gaseous to describe anything having to do with a gas, or that shares some characteristics with gases. While you can't usually see gaseous particles, you can often smell them. You might comment on the stinky gaseous exhaust from a passing bus, or refer to the gaseous nature of the space between the stars in the universe.
Vocabulary lists containing gaseous
The Water Cycle - Introductory
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Earth Science - Middle School
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The Water Cycle - Middle School and High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The volume of natural gas in a liquid form is about 600 times smaller than its volume in a gaseous state in natural-gas pipelines, according to the U.S.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 2, 2026
In addition to gaseous compounds, the team found large quantities of solid materials, including carbon-rich grains and water ices.
From Science Daily • Feb. 12, 2026
Its sound is like a gaseous rumbling from deep within the earth—or our bellies.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 22, 2025
Her gauzy, often gaseous, rhetoric made her sound like a dean of students at a small liberal arts college.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 5, 2025
He arrived at the Rad Lab skeptical about electromagnetic separation, having been convinced of the superiority of gaseous diffusion by his technical advisors, who came from a petroleum industry familiar with that technology.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
