condensation

American  

[kon-den-sey-shuhn, -duhn-] / ˌkɒn dɛnˈseɪ ʃən, -dən- /

noun

condensations plural

1. the act of condensing; the state of being condensed.

2. the result of being made more compact or dense.

3. reduction of a book, speech, statement, or the like, to a shorter or terser form; abridgment.

4. a condensed form.

   Did you read the whole book or just a condensation?

5. a condensed mass.

6. (in nontechnical usage) condensate.

7. the act or process of reducing a gas or vapor to a liquid or solid form.

8. Chemistry. a reaction between two or more organic molecules leading to the formation of a larger molecule and the elimination of a simple molecule such as water or alcohol.

9. Meteorology. the process by which atmospheric water vapor liquefies to form fog, clouds, or the like, or solidifies to form snow or hail.

10. Psychoanalysis. the representation of two or more ideas, memories, feelings, or impulses by one word or image, as in a person's humor, accidental slips, or dreams.

11. Physics. the relative amount by which the density of an elastic medium varies from its average value as a sound wave passes through it.

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condensation British  

/ ˌkɒndɛnˈseɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of condensing, or the state of being condensed

2. anything that has condensed from a vapour, esp on a window

3. chem a type of reaction in which two organic molecules combine to form a larger molecule as well as a simple molecule such as water, methanol, etc

4. anything that has been shortened, esp an abridged version of a book

5. psychoanal

   1. the fusion of two or more ideas, etc, into one symbol, occurring esp in dreams

   2. the reduction of many experiences into one word or action, as in a phobia

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condensation Scientific  

/ kŏn′dən-sā′shən /

1. The change of a gas or vapor to a liquid, either by cooling or by being subjected to increased pressure. When water vapor cools in the atmosphere, for example, it condenses into tiny drops of water, which form clouds.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• noncondensation
  noun
• overcondensation
  noun
• precondensation
  noun
• recondensation
  noun
• subcondensation
  noun
• condensational
  adjective
• condensative
  adjective
• uncondensational
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• condensations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of condensation

First recorded in 1595–1605; from Late Latin condēnsātiōn-, stem of condēnsātiō; equivalent to condensate + -ion

Explanation

If your cold glass of lemonade seems to be sweating in the heat, it's just the condensation, the little drops of water that form in the humid air. Condensation happens when a gas turns into a liquid. That lemonade feels wet in your hand because of the condensation on the glass. As the heated air reaches the cold water, the surface of that water begins to evaporate, but it turns back to liquid. Clouds are caused by condensation as well. Condensation can also describe the act of making something shorter, like the condensation of an unabridged dictionary to one that is geared to elementary school students.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

condensation condensations

When his fresh water ran out on July 11, he collected drinking water by filling buckets with seawater and capturing the condensation beneath plastic bags he stretched over the buckets.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Streetcars delivered residents to their errands across the city, windows fogged with condensation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

The researchers selected uranium, cerium, and cesium because each behaves differently during condensation.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026

One of the quiet tragedies of the potluck is that perfectly good food often remains trapped in its travel container — lids half removed, plastic corners fogged with condensation.

From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2026

A bead of condensation drips down the side of my milkshake, settling at the base of the plastic cup.

From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day

“Incompleteness, displacements, condensations, multiplicity of characters, unexpected returns, details that have no apparent explanation and even a lack of relevant details will be our traveling companions,” Ribeiro writes, preparing us for the journey.

From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2021

Heart-catching condensations of pure grief, they feel spookily in tune with images we’ve been seeing all over the world this year.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 31, 2020

The first condensations of matter were about the mass of a large star cluster or a small galaxy.

From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016

Many of the features newly seen in Cassini data indicated the presence of condensations or small moons only a few tens of meters across imbedded in the rings.

From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016

It is even possible that the material outgassed from Io contributes, after many collisions and condensations, to the ring system of Jupiter.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Related Words

• contraction