viscosity
noun
Simple meaning
A quantity expressing the magnitude of internal friction in a fluid.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vihskahsuhteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
vɪsˈkɑsəti
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.
noun
countablephysics
A quantity expressing the magnitude of internal friction in a fluid, as measured by the force per unit area resisting uniform flow.
uncountable
The state of being viscous.
uncountablepsychology
A tendency to prolong interpersonal encounters.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A quantity expressing the magnitude of internal friction in a fluid, as measured by the force per unit area resisting uniform flow.
Used this way, viscosity 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.
- 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.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A measure of the resistance to flow of a fluid under an applied force.
A measure of the resistance to flow of a fluid under an applied force.
A measure of the resistance to flow of a fluid under an applied force.
A unit of measurement for viscosity.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- turbulencenoun
- fluidnoun
- cstnoun
- lubricantnoun
- solubilitynoun
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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.