ELECTROLYSIS

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does electrolysis mean? 

• ELECTROLYSIS (noun)
  The noun ELECTROLYSIS has 2 senses:

1. (chemistry) a chemical decomposition reaction produced by passing an electric current through a solution containing ions

2. removing superfluous or unwanted hair by passing an electric current through the hair root

  Familiarity information: ELECTROLYSIS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ELECTROLYSIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(chemistry) a chemical decomposition reaction produced by passing an electric current through a solution containing ions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

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

chemical decomposition reaction; decomposition; decomposition reaction ((chemistry) separation of a substance into two or more substances that may differ from each other and from the original substance)

Domain category:

chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)

Derivation:

electrolytic (of or concerned with or produced by electrolysis)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Removing superfluous or unwanted hair by passing an electric current through the hair root

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

depilation; epilation (the act of removing hair (as from an animal skin))

 Context examples 

Scientists gone straight to electrolysis of the powdered regolith.

(Scientists Find Way to Extract Oxygen from Moon Dirt, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A constant used also as a unit of electric charge representing the electric charge carried by one mole (an Avogadro's number) of electrons or one equivalent of ions, and equal to the quantity of electricity that is capable of depositing or liberating one gram equivalent weight of a substance in electrolysis, approximately 9.6494E4 coulombs.

(Faraday, NCI Thesaurus)

The processing was performed using a method called molten salt electrolysis.

(Scientists Find Way to Extract Oxygen from Moon Dirt, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)