superheat
Americannoun
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the state of being superheated.
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the amount of superheating.
verb (used with object)
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to heat to an extreme degree or to a very high temperature.
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to heat (a liquid) above its boiling point without the formation of bubbles of vapor.
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to heat (a gas, as steam not in contact with water) to such a degree that its temperature may be lowered or its pressure increased without the conversion of any of the gas into liquid.
verb
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to heat (a vapour, esp steam) to a temperature above its saturation point for a given pressure
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to heat (a liquid) to a temperature above its boiling point without boiling occurring
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to heat excessively; overheat
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To heat a substance above a phase-transition temperature without the transition occurring. For example, water can be heated above its boiling point without boiling; the introduction of an impurity or physical disturbance can then trigger boiling. Superheating is an example of hysteresis.
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Compare supercool
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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superheatsimple
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superheatssimple
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have superheatedperfect
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has superheatedperfect
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am superheatingprogressive
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are superheatingprogressive
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is superheatingprogressive
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have been superheatingperfect progressive
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has been superheatingperfect progressive
Past
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superheatedsimple
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had superheatedperfect
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was superheatingprogressive
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were superheatingprogressive
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had been superheatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of superheat
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.
See Examples For:
Today, the plant is still buzzing with life: Nuclear fission, in the deep heart of the plant, continues to superheat water to 600 degrees at 150 times atmospheric pressure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2024
The workaround, historically, has been to energize powerful magnets that keep fusion-ready gases floating in a confined vacuum, sometimes while being bombarded with lasers that superheat them.
From Salon ● Dec. 14, 2022
But that bargain may be Faustian, he argues, as our dependence on unchecked industrial combustion threatens to superheat the planet into an overdrive of uncontrolled, unsurvivable blazes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2021
Today Saudi Arabian engineers plan to build a plant with giant mirrors that concentrate sunlight and superheat water within a steel-and-glass dome more than 50 meters across.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 8, 2021
Instead of heat going to the water, some would get stored in the air, which could superheat and melt the bag.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
It used to measure several Earths across, it stretches deep into the planet’s atmosphere, and it somehow superheats the air above it to temperatures hotter than lava.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 21, 2018
Steaming the superheats the crude inside railcars and helps it flow.
From Reuters ● Aug. 28, 2014
The higher superheats have been found to increase the economy to a considerable extent.
From Steam Turbines A Book of Instruction for the Adjustment and Operation of the Principal Types of this Class of Prime Movers by Collins, Hubert E. (Hubert Edwin)
And there is also increased concern about a tiny snail found only around superheated springs on the ocean floor.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
For fusion energy systems to run safely and consistently, researchers must closely track the behavior of superheated plasma fuel.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2026
In a low-ceiling basement lined with combustible finishes—as Le Constellation seems to have been—a small fire can rapidly generate a superheated smoke layer near the ceiling that gradually expands downward.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 4, 2026
The rhetoric around the two astronauts became superheated when Dutch astronaut Andreas Mogensen accused Musk of lying about the mission.
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2025
During the summer months, however, superheated air rises from the scorched earth like bubbles from the bottom of a boiling kettle, rushing heavenward in turbulent convection currents.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
No matter where we live in the world, if we don’t want to live in a superheating world of accelerating warfare, we have choices to make.
From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2026
Chemical recycling typically involves superheating plastics to convert them into fuel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2025
Fusion reactors work — in theory, anyway — by superheating hydrogen.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 14, 2022
Gas turbines emit such chemicals by superheating methane.
From Reuters ● Aug. 12, 2022
The reduction of coal-bunker capacity is largely compensated by the increase of economy secured by superheating, by increased expansion, elevation of piston-speed, and the introduction of surface-condensation.
From A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine by Thurston, Robert H.
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.
