| Library / English Dictionary |
DIFFUSION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of dispersing or diffusing something
Example:
the diffusion of knowledge
Synonyms:
diffusion; dispersal; dispersion; dissemination
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("diffusion" is a kind of...):
spread; spreading (act of extending over a wider scope or expanse of space or time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "diffusion"):
crop-dusting; spraying (the dispersion of fungicides or insecticides or fertilizer on growing crops (often from a low-flying aircraft))
Derivation:
diffuse (cause to become widely known)
diffuse (spread or diffuse through)
diffuse (move outward)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The property of being diffused or dispersed
Synonyms:
diffusion; dissemination
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("diffusion" is a kind of...):
dispersion; distribution (the spatial or geographic property of being scattered about over a range, area, or volume)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The spread of social institutions (and myths and skills) from one society to another
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("diffusion" is a kind of...):
spread; spreading (process or result of distributing or extending over a wide expanse of space)
Domain category:
mythology (myths collectively; the body of stories associated with a culture or institution or person)
Sense 4
Meaning:
(physics) the process in which there is movement of a substance from an area of high concentration of that substance to an area of lower concentration
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("diffusion" is a kind of...):
action; activity; natural action; natural process (a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings))
Domain category:
natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "diffusion"):
osmosis ((biology, chemistry) diffusion of molecules through a semipermeable membrane from a place of higher concentration to a place of lower concentration until the concentration on both sides is equal)
permeation; pervasion; suffusion (the process of permeating or infusing something with a substance)
transport (an exchange of molecules (and their kinetic energy and momentum) across the boundary between adjacent layers of a fluid or across cell membranes)
Context examples:
MRI method that measure the diffusion of water in the tissue, rather than the content of water as measured in conventional MRI.
(Diffusion MRI, NCI Thesaurus)
The pore allows free diffusion of molecules into and out of the cell and reduces cell viability.
(Activation of Membrane Attack Complex, NCI Thesaurus)
Ultra-high resolution MRI and diffusion tensor imaging provided structural information about the brains.
(An Atlas of the Developing Human Brain, NIH)
Once it enters the cell, 62Cu-PTSM is then reduced by the mitochondria, which prevents diffusion of the agent out of the cell.
(Copper Cu 62-PTSM, NCI Thesaurus)
The diffusion rates were estimated using the results of previous lab experiments.
(‘Crystal clocks’ used to time magma storage before volcanic eruptions, University of Cambridge)
A unit of diffusion coefficient in SI system.
(Meter Squared per Second, NCI Thesaurus)
This finding could imply that the exposed ice deposits may be exhumed, or they could result from molecular diffusion from depth.
(The Moon and Mercury May Have Thick Ice Deposits, NASA)
Rapid fluctuations in scattering intensity, around a mean value at a certain angle, occur because of particle diffusion and are dependent upon on particle size.
(Photon Correlation Spectroscopy, NCI Thesaurus)
The image is derived by calculation of the diffusion anisotropy.
(Diffusion Anisotropy, NCI Thesaurus/DICOM)
The fluid which runs through a dialysis machine and captures, for discard or analysis, the excess water and waste from the blood stream through diffusion and ultrafiltration.
(Dialysis Fluid, NCI Thesaurus)
