vapor pressure


noun
  1. the pressure exerted by the molecules of a vapor, especially that part of the total pressure exerted by vapor in a mixture of gases, as by water vapor in air.

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Origin of vapor pressure

1
Probably earlier than 1895–1900

Words Nearby vapor pressure

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use vapor pressure in a sentence

  • Let me first repeat that evaporation increases with increased air currents and with decreased vapor pressure.

    The Dollar Hen | Milo M. Hastings
  • Now, the vapor pressure undergoes all manner of changes with the passing of storm centers and the changes of prevailing winds.

    The Dollar Hen | Milo M. Hastings

Scientific definitions for vapor pressure

vapor pressure

  1. The pressure exerted by a vapor on the solid or liquid phase with which it is in equilibrium. At pressures lower than the vapor pressure, more atoms or molecules of the liquid or solid vaporize and escape from the surface of the liquid or solid than are absorbed from the vapor, resulting in evaporation. At the vapor pressure the exchange is equal and there is no net evaporation. Also called evaporation pressure

  2. The pressure exerted by water vapor in the atmosphere.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Cultural definitions for vapor pressure

vapor pressure

In physics and chemistry, the atmospheric pressure that would be exerted by any single component of a gas if that component were the only one present. For example, the vapor pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere of the Earth is the pressure that would exist if everything but oxygen were removed. The total atmospheric pressure is the sum of the vapor pressures of all the materials in the atmosphere.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.