liquid

noun, adj — 8 senses

liquid

noun

/ˈlɪk.wɪd/ · [ˈlɪk.wɪd]

Etymology From Middle English liquide, from Old French liquide, from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid, moist”), from liqueō (“to be liquid, be fluid”). Doublet of liquidus. As a term for a consonant, it comes from Latin liquida (cōnsōnāns), a calque of Ancient Greek ὑγρὸν (σύμφωνον) (hugròn (súmphōnon), “liquid consonant”).

1

Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Physical A substance that is flowing, and keeping no shape, such as water; a substance of which the molecules, while not tending to separate from one another like those of a gas, readily change their relative position, and which therefore retains no definite shape, except that determined by the containing receptacle; an inelastic fluid.

  • A liquid can freeze to become a solid or evaporate into a gas.
  • The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
2

Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences Any of a class of consonant sounds that includes l and r.

  • Many female forenames are regarded as euphonyms. What is and is not euphonious is necessarily subjective, but it could be suggested that names containing labials (b, m), sibilants (s, sh) and liquids (l, r) are more likely to be euphonyms than those that do not.1996, Adrian Room, An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies, page 41:
  • […]-able does not attach to verbs ending in a postconsonantal liquid […]1999, Ingo Plag, Morphological Productivity, page 86:
Synonyms
liquid, fluid
Antonyms
gas, solid
Derived terms
84 termsamber liquid, bioliquid, bulk liquid, cashew nutshell liquid, cryogenic liquid, dish liquid, dishwashing liquid, Dutch liquid, e-liquid, fairy liquid, ferroelectric liquid-crystal display, gas-liquid chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, high-pressure liquid chromatography, ionic liquid, liquidability, liquidable, liquid air, liquid ammonia, liquid asset, liquid bandage, liquid bomb, liquid bread, liquid cosh, liquid courage, liquid crystal, liquid crystal display, liquid democracy, liquid diet, liquid document, liquid dubstep, liquid ecstasy, liquid G, liquid gas, liquid glass, liquid gold, liquid helium, liquidise, liquidish, liquidize, liquid laugh, liquidless, liquidlike, liquid-like, liquid lunch, liquidly, liquid measure, liquid mirror, liquid mirror telescope, liquid modern, liquid modernity, liquid natural gas, liquidness, liquid nitrogen, liquidogenous, liquid oxygen, liquid paper, liquid paraffin, liquid phase, liquid rocket, liquid sandpaper, liquid scintillation, liquid scintillation counter, liquid smoke, liquid state machine, liquid sunshine, liquid water, liquid X, liquidy, loxygen, Luttinger liquid, nanoliquid, natural gas liquid, nonliquid, non-Newtonian liquid, quantum spin liquid, semi liquid, semi-liquid, semiliquid, subliquid, Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid, unliquid, washing-up liquid, yellow cross liquid
Related terms
liquidate, liquidation, liquidizer, liquor, fluid, fluidic, :Category:Liquids
Hypernyms
substance
Hyponyms
water, mercury, milk, oil, petroleum, beverage

liquid

adj

Etymology From Middle English liquide, from Old French liquide, from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid, moist”), from liqueō (“to be liquid, be fluid”). Doublet of liquidus. As a term for a consonant, it comes from Latin liquida (cōnsōnāns), a calque of Ancient Greek ὑγρὸν (σύμφωνον) (hugròn (súmphōnon), “liquid consonant”).

1

Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Physical Flowing freely like water; fluid; not solid and not gaseous; composed of particles that move freely among each other on the slightest pressure.

  • liquid nitrogen
2

Business, Finance Of an asset Easily sold or disposed of without losing value.

3

Business, Finance Of a market Having sufficient trading activity to make buying or selling easy.

4

Flowing or sounding smoothly or without abrupt transitions or harsh tones.

  • a liquid melody
5

Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonology, Sciences Belonging to a class of consonants comprising the laterals and the rhotics, which in many languages behave similarly.

  • /l/ and /r/ are liquid consonants.
6

Fluid and transparent.

  • the liquid air
Synonyms
flowy, fluxive
Antonyms
solid, gaseous, illiquid
Derived terms
liquid refreshment, liquid sky, liquid soap
Related terms
liquefiable, liquefy, liquidity, liquidous, liquify

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.