precipitated
Americanadjective
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having been brought on suddenly or prematurely.
Pressure on the tender spot causes the patient to physically react to the precipitated pain by exclaiming or moving.
Operators are requesting compensation for losses incurred due to the precipitated shutdown of reactors after the accident.
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Chemistry. (of solid material) having been separated from a solution, such as by evaporation or through the use of a reagent.
You can tell the reaction is complete from the purple color of the precipitated sodium chloride.
The precipitated salts give the dry lake bed a white color resembling a beach.
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Meteorology. having fallen as rain, snow, hail, etc..
Most of the precipitated water moves along these defined channels before being discharged into streams.
verb
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Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of precipitated
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.
Production ended on July 27, 1990 at a factory in Portugal, precipitated by tightening emission standards in Europe.
From Barron's • May 21, 2026
Greenspan is now blamed for looking the other way as banks and brokerage firms bought and sold massive amounts of risky mortgage debt, which precipitated the devastating global financial crisis of 2008.
From MarketWatch • May 10, 2026
They said that the tax problems which precipitated her departure from the cabinet last autumn are occasionally mentioned by voters on the doorstep as an example of their frustration with the Labour government.
From BBC • Mar. 18, 2026
Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, his Republican and Democratic successors, dealt with the same moribund economy, and Carter oversaw another oil crisis in 1979 precipitated by the Iranian Revolution.
From Salon • Mar. 15, 2026
That carnage was precipitated by the British colonial government when it blamed the Igbo people for the national strike, banned Igbo-published newspapers, and generally encouraged anti-Igbo sentiment.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
