state of matter
Americannoun
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One of the four principal conditions in which matter exists—solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.
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See also phase phase transition
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Microsoft's approach to quantum computing is equally strange: it is based on a 90-year-old physics theory and involves a state of matter which is neither liquid, solid nor gas.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
To do this it had to exploit a novel state of matter - different from the three familiar states of liquid, solid or gas.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
As Zhang notes, "Understanding this hidden state of matter brings us one step closer to unlocking the secrets of Earth-like planetary interiors."
From Science Daily ● Dec. 10, 2025
The quark-gluon plasma is a unique state of matter where the basic building blocks of protons and neutrons, quarks and gluons, exist freely rather than being confined inside particles.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2025
The normal, predictable state of matter throughout the universe is randomness, a relaxed sort of equilibrium, with atoms and their particles scattered around in an amorphous muddle.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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.
