ice crystals

American

plural noun

Meteorology.

precipitation consisting of small, slowly falling crystals of ice.

Etymology

Origin of ice crystals

First recorded in 1840–50

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.

Traces of water or humidity freeze into ice crystals that can scratch pumps and create blockages.

From The Wall Street Journal

Light from the Moon passes through the ice crystals where it bends and reflects creating the ring effect.

From BBC

They're subjected to very low temperatures to freeze the internal moisture into solid ice crystals, and then they are moved to a vacuum chamber.

From BBC

Invented in 1946 by General Electric scientists in upstate New York, cloud seeding works because silver iodide particles resemble ice crystals.

From The Wall Street Journal

Thunderstorm clouds contain a mix of ice crystals and larger chunks of ice.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023