sodium silicate

American

noun

Chemistry.

any of several clear, white, or greenish water-soluble compounds of formulas varying in ratio from Na 2 O⋅3.75SiO 2 to 2Na 2 O⋅SiO 2 : used chiefly in dyeing, printing, and fireproofing textiles and in the manufacture of paper products and cement.

sodium silicate British

noun

Also called: soluble glass. a substance having the general formula, Na 2 O. x SiO 2 , where x varies between 3 and 5, existing as an amorphous powder or present in a usually viscous aqueous solution See water glass
any sodium salt of orthosilicic acid or metasilicic acid

"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

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.

CleanTok is in love with The Pink Stuff – a rosy cleaning paste that’s made from baking soda, quartz, sodium silicate and soap.

From Fox News • Nov. 27, 2021

But the increased acidity seemed to reduce the effectiveness of the sodium silicate.

From New York Times • Aug. 24, 2019

Silica gel, a colloidal dispersion of hydrated silicon dioxide, is formed when dilute hydrochloric acid is added to a dilute solution of sodium silicate.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

A blob of sodium silicate had clogged up a test tube, so I heated it over an alcohol lamp, intending to melt it.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 15, 2015

This is due, probably, to a little iron which is in the sodium silicate, but which apparently does not injure the eggs for food purposes.

From Every Step in Canning by Gray, Grace Viall

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023