Crossword clues for aeriform
aeriform
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Aeriform \A"["e]r*i*form\ (?; 277), a. [L. a["e]r air + -form: cf. F. a['e]riforme.] Having the form or nature of air, or of an elastic fluid; gaseous. Hence fig.: Unreal.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Pertaining to air. 2 Having a form similar to that of air. 3 Light, unsubstantial, or unstable.
WordNet
adj. resembling air or having the form of air [syn: airlike]
characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air; "figures light and aeriform come unlooked for and melt away"- Thomas Carlyle; "aerial fancies"; "an airy apparition"; "physical rather than ethereal forms" [syn: aerial, airy, aery, ethereal]
Usage examples of "aeriform".
Heat, therefore, does not rank as a fourth condition by the side of the solid, liquid and aeriform states, in the way that Fire ranks in the older conception by the side of Earth, Water and Air.
We know that this characteristic of matter diminishes gradually with its transition from the solid to the liquid and aeriform states.
Thus there is reason to describe also from the modern point of view the solid and liquid states as essentially 'cold', and the aeriform state as 'warm'.
But aeriform matter still has density and weight, and this means that matter in this state combines the two opposing qualities.
Through this process matter passes over from the aeriform condition into that of numerous separate, characteristically structured solid bodies - the starch grains.
Of the former process, by which matter is carried from its gravity-bound to its gravity-free condition, we know that it takes place in three stages, of which the first implies the lifting of matter from the solid to the liquid condition, the second from the liquid to the aeriform condition, and the third to the condition of pure heat.