- past participle of melt.
molten
Americanverb
adjective
-
liquefied by heat; in a state of fusion; melted.
molten lead.
-
produced by melting and casting.
a molten image.
adjective
-
liquefied; melted
molten lead
-
made by having been melted
molten casts
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of molten
1250–1300; Middle English; old past participle of melt 1
Explanation
Molten describes an object that's reduced to liquid form by heating. You're probably familiar with lava, the molten rock that explodes out of a volcano. Molten originated from the Old English verb meltian, meaning "become liquid." It takes incredibly high temperatures to get an object that was once rock solid to be transformed into a liquid state. Something much safer than lava has made the term molten popular — molten chocolate cake. This cake has a center that's filled with hot, gooey pudding-like chocolate that oozes out. This is probably the only molten thing you'd ever want to touch.
Vocabulary lists containing molten
Earth Science - Middle School
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Rocks and Minerals - Introductory
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Earth Science - 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 raiders replicate the Etruscan technique by flinging molten gold downward in frigid air where it solidifies into microscopic beads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Getting a single crystal to grow into the shape of the blade instead isn't just a matter of cooling the molten version down slowly, the process also uses a bizarre trick called a pigtail.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
This is because each molten blade would naturally cool into a solid object consisting of many small grains of metal alloy, all jumbled together.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
The intense airflow strips molten material from its surface, producing droplets that continue to evaporate after separating from the main body.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026
Now the forty-foot-tall goddess gazed serenely over the River Acheron, her gold dress like molten metal in the sun.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
