paramagnet

9.9

A material that becomes magnetic only while a magnet is near

noun
/ˈpærəˌmæɡnɪt/

Specialized

: paramagneto

And there's a phase transition between a paramagnet at high temperature and a ferromagnet at low temperatures.

Examples

During the experiment, the team noticed that the paramagnet lost its magnetization once the external field was removed.
Scientists studied how different materials behave as a paramagnet in strong magnetic fields.
Iron is an example of a paramagnet, which exhibits magnetization when exposed to a magnetic field.

How Magnetic

ferromagnet

Specialized

1 8.1

paramagnet

Specialized

9.9

diamagnet

Specialized

9.9

nonmagnetic

Specialized

1 5.1

Surface Forms

paramagnet singular

paramagnets plural

Morphology

paramagnet = magnet (opaque) = para + magnet

The form is compositional as para- + magnet, but the specialized scientific meaning is not directly predictable from the base word for an average learner.

Etymology

Paramagnet comes from the prefix para- meaning 'beside' or 'near' and the word magnet. A helpful image is that a paramagnet only becomes magnetic when it is 'near' or next to a magnetic field, so its magnetism appears only alongside that external field — just like parallel uses para- to mean 'side by side'.