Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌬️ To make thinner 🎨 To make abstract
to rarefy

to rarefy

9.9
To make air or other things thinner so they have more empty space
  • verb
  • /ˈrɛrɪˌfaɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : rarefactar
  • Then as the piston moves the other direction, it rarefies the air, it drags some of the air with it.

Examples

  • The scientist wanted to rarefy the gas in the chamber before conducting the experiment.

  • And he proposes to rarefy the atmosphere through vile flame, which he expects to ignite with phosphorus!

    Fiction book (1991)

  • As the sun rose higher, the heat began to rarefy the air, making it easier to breathe.

  • High-altitude conditions can rarefy the atmosphere, which affects how we perceive oxygen levels.

Synonyms

to thin
vsto rarefy
38 1.4

To become less thick or crowded, for example a crowd

focuses specifically on lowering density or weakening consistency
to attenuate
vsto rarefy
9 7.9

To make something weaker, like sound or light

is broader, covering many types of weakening not only density
to thin out
vsto rarefy
4 3.5

Become fewer and more spread out

applies to reduced numbers rather than density alone
to rarify
vsto rarefy
  • Specialized
1 9.1

To make air or gas thinner so there is less of it in a place

has identical meaning but differs as a variant spelling

Antonyms

to thicken
35 2.3

Become or make something less runny

to densify
  • Specialized
1 6.9

To make something more full of buildings, people or material

How Thin

to dilute
28 3.5
to rarefy
  • Specialized
9.9
to thin
38 1.4
attenuate
8.2

Surface Forms

rarefy infinitive
rarefied past
rarefied past participle
rarefying present participle
rarefies third person singular

Morphology

rarefy = rare (transparent) = rare + fy

A direct and literal formation: 'rare' (not dense/sparse) + '-fy' ('make'), yielding 'make less dense'.

Etymology

Rarefy comes from the old Latin word rarus meaning 'not dense' or 'thin', and it shares a root with the common word rare. So to rarefy something is to make it less dense or more thin, like air that gets thinner as you climb a mountain.