phlogistic

American  

[floh-jis-tik] / floʊˈdʒɪs tɪk /

adjective

1. Pathology. inflammatory.

2. pertaining to or consisting of phlogiston.

---

phlogistic British  

/ flɒˈdʒɪstɪk /

adjective

1. pathol of inflammation; inflammatory

2. chem of, concerned with, or containing phlogiston

---

Other Word Forms

• postphlogistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of phlogistic

1725–35; < Greek phlogist ( ós ) inflammable (verbid of phlogízein to set on fire; akin to phlox, phlegm ) + -ic

Example Sentences

That which preserves vegetable bodies so long from dissolution in water, is what may be called the inflammable or phlogistic composition of those bodies.

From Theory of the Earth, Volume 2 (of 4) by Hutton, James

It will be seen from this that the phlogistic theory was a step towards chemistry and away from alchemy.

From A History of Science — Volume 4 by Williams, Henry Smith

I imagine that the effect was produced by those substances, or by the water which they attracted from the air, imbibing the phlogistic matter discharged from the lungs.

From Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air by Priestley, Joseph

At the hands of Stahl and his school, the phlogistic theory, by exhibiting a fundamental similarity between all processes of combustion and by its remarkable flexibility, came to be a general theory of chemical action.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 "Châtelet" to "Chicago" by Various

The phlogistic theory did more than serve as a means for bringing together many apparently disconnected facts.

From The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry by Muir, M. M. Pattison