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bec

bec

1 9.9
A pointed part like a bird's beak used to pour from a teapot
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : pico
  • More than a year ago, experimenters saw a BEC in molecules made of fermionic atoms (see PHYSICS TODAY, October 2003, page 18).

Examples

  • The hummingbird's bec is perfectly adapted for sipping nectar from flowers.

  • To help with that alignment, the MIT researchers practiced by forming vortices in a sodium BEC—a much easier task.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Research on gaseous BEC can be divided into two areas.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The rapid pace of developments in atomic BEC during the last few years has taken the physics community by surprise.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The paired state, like the BEC, would be a superfluid.

    Academic text (2005)
  • In this article, I sketch the underlying concepts of atomic BEC and describe some of the recent experimental advances.

    Academic text (1999)
  • An attractive feature of BEC in dilute atomic gases is that it can be theoretically described from first principles.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Interactions then localize the atoms and prevent BEC; the only exception is liquid helium.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The occupation of low-energy states near the transition point spoils pure BEC in uniform gases.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Many researchers dream one day of taking a system of particles smoothly from a molecular BEC to a BCS-type superfluid.

    Academic text (2003)

Synonyms

beak
vsbec
35 1.0

The hard pointed part of a bird's mouth used to eat and pick up food

is broader and also covers that mouthpart and other spout shaped projections
bill
vsbec
11 3.6

A hard mouth part on a bird used to eat and groom

is broader and also covers that mouthpart and other spout shaped projections
pecker
vsbec
7 6.8

A bird's hard mouth part used for pecking and eating

is broader and also covers that mouthpart and other spout shaped projections

Surface Forms

bec singular
becs plural

Etymology

Bec comes from the French word bec, which means 'beak' like a bird's mouth and is the same idea behind the English word beak. So a bec is a beak-shaped part, for example the spout of a teapot.