insulation
Americannoun
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Also called: insulant. material used to insulate a body, device, or region
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the act or process of insulating
Other Word Forms
- preinsulation noun
Etymology
Origin of insulation
Explanation
Insulation is the process of keeping heat, sound, or electricity from spreading. It's also the material used to do so. If you can hear your neighbor snoring at night, you might need better sound insulation. Your thermos of hot chocolate stays warm when it's freezing outside because the thermos provides insulation. Similarly, the insulation in an ice chest keeps your sodas and food cool at the beach, even when you're being scorched by the sun. Insulation can also refer to a state of being detached or isolated. If you stay at home and avoid TV, the internet, and phone calls, you are in a state of insulation.
Vocabulary lists containing insulation
Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
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Physical Science - Energy - Introductory
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Physics - Introductory
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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.
Snow Secure uses a similar concept, with a cooling blanket made from a material commonly used as home insulation in Finland.
From Slate • Apr. 11, 2026
Prosecutors believe the fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to the ceiling in the bar's basement level, igniting the sound insulation foam.
From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026
“While we acknowledge that Anthropic could still be engineering its own cyber products in lower-barrier areas, we see the urgency of the partnership as indicative of core cyber’s relative insulation from AI disintermediation,” he said.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 7, 2026
Banks then also typically get layers of insulation from the underlying loans going bad.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
“And I think his shoes were just newspapers tied around his feet. That’s good insulation, you know.”
From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
