latex
Americannoun
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latices,
plural
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latexes
plural
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a milky liquid in certain plants, as milkweeds, euphorbias, poppies, or the plants yielding India rubber, that coagulates on exposure to air.
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Chemistry. any emulsion in water of finely divided particles of synthetic rubber or plastic.
noun
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a whitish milky fluid containing protein, starch, alkaloids, etc, that is produced by many plants. Latex from the rubber tree is used in the manufacture of rubber
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a suspension of synthetic rubber or plastic in water, used in the manufacture of synthetic rubber products, etc
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The colorless or milky sap of certain trees and plants, such as the milkweed and the rubber tree, that hardens when exposed to the air. Latex usually contains gum resins, waxes, and oils, and sometimes toxic substances.
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A manufactured emulsion of synthetic rubber or plastic droplets in water that resembles the latex of plants. It is used in paints, adhesives, and synthetic rubber products.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of latex
1655–65; < New Latin, special use of Latin latex water, juice, liquid
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.
See Examples For:
To create the biomaterial, the scientists manually collected latex from freshly harvested jackfruit and carefully purified it.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 19, 2026
Costs have been affected "across the board", including the price of condom material nitrile latex and natural rubber.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
Many balloons are made from latex, which is a natural rubber from trees, but even latex-based balloons may require small amounts of oil-based chemicals during processing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 21, 2026
Turzanska constructed the players’ costumes from raw linen, using slightly enlarged, period-accurate shapes combined with contemporary latex paint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2026
As the camaradas paddled down the smooth river, they could see the surrounding forest peppered with Brazil’s famous rubber trees, which ranchers harvested for a milky-white sap called latex.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
As a result, for the first time, the team were able to use light to produce polystyrene latexes with particle sizes greater than one micrometer and with highly uniform diameters.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2023
Short-wavelength radiation is scattered when the particle size becomes close to the radiation wavelength, making latexes with particle sizes larger than the incoming wavelengths difficult to produce.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2023
"The system could potentially be used in all areas where latexes are used, such as films, coatings, supports for diagnostics, and more," Lacôte says.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2023
“Yellow Latex” Streaks.—This appearance of “yellow-latex” streaks in not common, and may be accounted for by incomplete mixture of two different latices.
From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Sidney Morgan
Like the holy river of Virgil, to the souls who drink of him, Herrick offers 'securos latices.'
From A selection from the lyrical poems of Robert Herrick by Francis Turner Palgrave
But it may be believed that under ordinary weather conditions most latices are infected before reaching the factory.
From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Sidney Morgan
Such latices are difficult to handle in order to secure uniform mixture with the coagulant.
From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Sidney Morgan
They are: A. The Hot-Water Treatment.—This method has been in constant use on estates which have old trees giving rich latices.
From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Sidney Morgan
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.
