DISPERSION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dispersion mean? 

• DISPERSION (noun)
  The noun DISPERSION has 3 senses:

1. spreading widely or driving off

2. the spatial or geographic property of being scattered about over a range, area, or volume

3. the act of dispersing or diffusing something

  Familiarity information: DISPERSION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISPERSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spreading widely or driving off

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

dispersion; scattering

Hypernyms ("dispersion" is a kind of...):

spread; spreading (process or result of distributing or extending over a wide expanse of space)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dispersion"):

Diaspora (the dispersion of the Jews outside Israel; from the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 587-86 BC when they were exiled to Babylonia up to the present time)

dissipation (breaking up and scattering by dispersion)

Derivation:

disperse (move away from each other)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The spatial or geographic property of being scattered about over a range, area, or volume

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

dispersion; distribution

Context example:

in complementary distribution

Hypernyms ("dispersion" is a kind of...):

spacing; spatial arrangement (the property possessed by an array of things that have space between them)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dispersion"):

complementary distribution; complementation ((linguistics) a distribution of related speech sounds or forms in such a way that they only appear in different contexts)

diaspora (the dispersion or spreading of something that was originally localized (as a people or language or culture))

diffusion; dissemination (the property of being diffused or dispersed)

innervation (the distribution of nerve fibers to an organ or body region)

scatter; spread (a haphazard distribution in all directions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of dispersing or diffusing something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

diffusion; dispersal; dispersion; dissemination

Context example:

the diffusion of knowledge

Hypernyms ("dispersion" 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 "dispersion"):

crop-dusting; spraying (the dispersion of fungicides or insecticides or fertilizer on growing crops (often from a low-flying aircraft))

Derivation:

disperse (cause to become widely known)

disperse (to cause to separate and go in different directions)

 Context examples 

A suspension of liquid within another liquid or a dispersion consisting of two or more liquid phases.

(Emulsion, NCI Thesaurus)

Epinephrine, a potent vasoconstrictor, is added to the gel to enhance penetration of fluorouracil into tumor tissue and reduce dispersion to surrounding tissues, thus enhancing the local concentration of fluorouracil.

(Fluorouracil-E Therapeutic Implant, NCI Thesaurus)

Epinephrine, a potent vasoconstrictor, is added to the gel to enhance penetration of cisplatin into tumor tissue and reduce dispersion into the surrounding tissues.

(Cisplatin-E Therapeutic Implant, NCI Thesaurus)

Mixing of dry ingredients by dispersion and turbulence within a flowing stream of gas.

(Dry Powder Pneumatic Mixing, NCI Thesaurus)

A colloidal dispersion formulation of 9-Aminocamptothecin, a water-insoluble camptothecin derivative.

(Aminocamptothecin Colloidal Dispersion, NCI Thesaurus)

And all this despite the fact that microbial dispersion in this area, due to the wind and to human visitors, is intense.

(Place discovered on earth with no microbial life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

According to the researchers, one likely function of stems would be to enable the greater dispersion of offspring, which rangeomorphs produced by expelling small propagules.

(Why life on Earth first got big, University of Cambridge)

The difference between the 3d and 1st quartiles is called the interquartile range and it is used as a measure of variability (dispersion).

(Interquartile Range, NCI Thesaurus)

It requires substantial ablative modalities to both reduce the number of cells present and to ensure dispersion of the aggregates.

(Leukostasis, NCI Thesaurus)

“I am sorry,” said I, laughing afresh, “to have occasioned such a dispersion.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)