Dictionary.com

liquid crystal

noun

a liquid having certain crystalline characteristics, especially different optical properties in different directions when exposed to an electric field.

QUIZZES

BECOME A PRO CHEF WITH THIS EXQUISITE CUISINE QUIZ!

Even if you can't be a professional chef, you can at least talk like one with this vocabulary quiz.
Question 1 of 9
You may have read the word "simmer" in a recipe or two, but what does it really mean?
To cook in water that begins cold and then reaches a boil.
To stew in a sauce for a long time.
To cook in water, just below boiling temperature.
TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of liquid crystal

First recorded in 1890–95

Words nearby liquid crystal

liquid asset, liquidate, liquidation, liquidator, liquid compass, liquid crystal, liquid-crystal display, liquid ecstasy, liquid fire, liquid glass, liquid gold
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

British Dictionary definitions for liquid crystal

liquid crystal

noun

a liquid that has some crystalline characteristics, such as the presence of different optical properties in different directions; a substance in a mesomorphic stateSee also smectic, nematic
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for liquid crystal

liquid crystal

Any of various liquids in which molecules are regularly arrayed like a solid crystal along one or two dimensions, but are free in the other dimensions as with typical liquids. Liquid crystals often display unusual and often manipulable optical properties such as anisotropic scattering. See more at LCD.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.