dissolve
verb
Simple meaning
To liquify, melt into a fluid.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihzahlvSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈzɑlv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To liquify, melt into a fluid.
physical chemistrytransitive
Cause to go into a solution
“The recipe says that we should dissolve a cup of sugar in two cups of water.”
intransitive
To be melted, changed into a fluid.
physical chemistrytransitive
To disintegrate chemically into a solution by immersion into a liquid or other material.
physical chemistrytransitive
Pass into a solution
“The sugar quickly dissolved in the coffee.”
transitive
To destroy, make disappear.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Cause to go into a solution
Used this way, dissolve is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
“The recipe says that we should dissolve a cup of sugar in two cups of water.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use dissolve
- “The recipe says that we should dissolve a cup of sugar in two cups of water.”verb
- “The sugar quickly dissolved in the coffee.”verb
- “The decree officially dissolved the marriage.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The process of going into solution.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A liquid substance capable of dissolving other substances.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.