VAPOR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vapor mean? 

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

1. a visible suspension in the air of particles of some substance

2. the process of becoming a vapor

  Familiarity information: VAPOR used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VAPOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A visible suspension in the air of particles of some substance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

vapor; vapour

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

suspension (a mixture in which fine particles are suspended in a fluid where they are supported by buoyancy)

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

steam (water at boiling temperature diffused in the atmosphere)

water vapor; water vapour (water in a vaporous form diffused in the atmosphere but below boiling temperature)

Derivation:

evaporate (change into a vapor)

evaporate (cause to change into a vapor)

vaporise (lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue)

vaporise (turn into gas)

vaporize (lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue)

vaporize (turn into gas)

vaporous (filled with vapor)

vaporous (resembling or characteristic of vapor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The process of becoming a vapor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

evaporation; vapor; vaporisation; vaporization; vapour

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

phase change; phase transition; physical change; state change (a change from one state (solid or liquid or gas) to another without a change in chemical composition)

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

boiling (the application of heat to change something from a liquid to a gas)

clouding; clouding up (the process whereby water particles become visible in the sky)

smoke; smoking (a hot vapor containing fine particles of carbon being produced by combustion)

Derivation:

evaporate (lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue)

evaporate (change into a vapor)

evaporate (cause to change into a vapor)

vaporise (lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue)

vaporise (turn into gas)

vaporize (lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue)

vaporize (turn into gas)

 Context examples 

Many young people inhale vapors from these, not knowing that it can cause serious health problems.

(Inhalants, NIH: National Institute on Drug Abuse)

Issue associated with the visibility of water vapor in the immediate atmosphere in which the device is being used.

(Fogging in Medical Device Environment, Food and Drug Administration)

A measure of the water vapor content of air.

(Humidity, NCI Thesaurus)

Inhalation of its vapors can depress central nervous system activity and cause degeneration of the liver and kidneys.

(Carbon Tetrachloride, NCI Thesaurus)

A complex mixture of dusts, vapors and gases that contains various known or potential carcinogens, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, formaldehyde, nitrosamines, coal tar and coal tar pitch, cadmium, benzene and arsenic compounds.

(Coke Oven Emission, NCI Thesaurus)

What has puzzled scientists is why water vapor appears to be missing from the toasty worlds' atmospheres, when it is abundant in similar but slightly cooler planets.

(Water Is Destroyed, Then Reborn in Ultrahot Jupiters, NASA/JPL)

This substance is irritating to eyes and mucous membranes and emits toxic vapors of hydrochloric acid and other chlorinated compounds when heated to decomposition.

(Bis(chloromethyl) Ether, NCI Thesaurus)

Exposure to its vapors causes severe irritation of the skin, eyes, mucous membranes, respiratory tract as well as pulmonary edema, pneumonia and lung cancer (mainly small-cell type) in humans.

(Chloromethyl Methyl Ether, NCI Thesaurus)

Models had predicted that meteoroid impacts could release water from the Moon as a vapor, but scientists hadn’t yet observed the phenomenon.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)

Previous Hubble observations of the day/night boundary detected evidence of water vapor and possibly clouds and hazes in the atmosphere.

(Hubble Captures Blistering Pitch-Black Planet, NASA)