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
Instead of freezing, it transforms from a normal gas into a superfluid, a rare state of matter that flows without any resistance and displays strange behaviors, including creeping up the sides of containers.
From Science Daily • Feb. 5, 2026
These motionless atoms have a major effect on how a liquid turns into a solid, including the creation of an unusual state of matter known as a corralled supercooled liquid.
From Science Daily • Dec. 11, 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.
