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plasma

plasma

277 6.3
A very hot gas with charged particles found in stars
  • noun
  • /ˈplæzmə/
  • Specialized
translation icon : plasma
  • One possibility is to contain the reactants in plasma, the high-temperature form of matter.
  • plasma physics
  • interstellar plasma
  • comet plasma

The sun is a giant plasma fusion reactor.

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Examples

  • So this is glowing hot plasma, a few million Kelvin.

  • OK, now we're going to stick the probe in the plasma, see what happens.

  • You have what looks like the plasma at the top, which is clear.

  • Well, the same kind of thing happens in a plasma flowing past the moon.

  • The sun is a giant plasma fusion reactor.

  • And so we need a stronger force to keep the plasma together to confine it.

  • In other properties, the plasma, far from the comet, appeared very much like the solar wind.

    Academic text (1992)
  • Inside this cage is the largest and most powerful plasma injector in the world.

  • Finally, instruments measured the magnetic field and plasma waves around the comet.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The sun is composed primarily of plasma, the hottest state of matter in the universe.

Compounds

blood plasma
  • Specialized
2 3.5

The pale yellow liquid part of blood that holds blood cells and carries proteins and nutrients

plasma membrane
  • Specialized
1 4.5

A thin flexible layer around a cell that controls what enters and leaves it

plasma cell
  • Specialized
1 4.2

A white blood cell that makes antibodies to fight infections

plasma physics
  • Specialized
1 5.8

Study of hot charged gas and how it behaves

A serious lung infection that inflames the tissue between air spaces, often in babies or people with weak immune systems

plasma protein
  • Specialized
3.8

A substance in the liquid part of blood, such as albumin or globulin

A protein in blood that helps it to clot and whose lack causes heavy bleeding

How Hot

plasma
  • Specialized
277 6.3
gas
729 1.0
liquid
324 1.0
solid
  • Specialized
9 1.0

Surface Forms

plasma singular
plasmas plural

Etymology

Plasma takes its name from the same Greek root for 'something formed', and scientists used it for the hot, ionized gas because that glowing gas looks and behaves like a single 'formed' sea of particles that carries free electrons and ions, just as blood plasma carries cells, which is why the word fits this state of matter.