liquid

English

Wikipedia

A liquid—water—flowing out of a bottle

Etymology

From Middle English liquide, from Old French liquide, from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid, moist”), from liquere (“to be liquid, be fluid”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈlɪkwɪd/, X-SAMPA: /"lIkwId/
• enPR: lɪk'wɪd

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

liquid (countable and uncountable; plural liquids)

1. (physics) A substance that is flowing, and keeping no shape, such as water; a substance of which the molecules, while not tending to separate from one another like those of a gas, readily change their relative position, and which therefore retains no definite shape, except that determined by the containing receptacle; an inelastic fluid.

   A liquid can freeze to become a solid or evaporate into a gas.

2. (phonetics) An l or r sound.
   • 1999, Ingo Plag, Morphological Productivity (page 86)

     […] -able does not attach to verbs ending in a postconsonantal liquid […]

Usage notes

The differentiation of a liquid as an incompressible fluid is not strictly correct, experiment having shown that liquids are compressible to a very limited extent. See fluid.

Coordinate terms

• solid
• gas

Related terms

• liquidate
• liquidation
• liquidizer
• liquor

Translations

substance that is liquid

• Afrikaans: vloeibare (af)
• Arabic: سائل (ar) (saa'il) m, مائع (ar) (maa'i3) m
• Armenian: հեղուկ (hy) (heġuk)
• Asturian: líquidu (ast) m
• Azeri: maye (az), sıyıq (az)
• Bulgarian: течност (bg) (tečnost) f
• Catalan: líquid (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 液體 (cmn), 液体 (cmn) (yètǐ), 液態 (cmn), 液态 (cmn) (yètài)

• Czech: kapalina (cs) f, tekutina (cs) f
• Danish: væske (da) c
• Dutch: vloeistof (nl) f
• Estonian: vedelik (et)
• Finnish: neste (fi)
• French: liquide (fr) m
• Galician: líquido (gl) m
• German: Flüssigkeit (de) f
• Greek: υγρό (el) (ygró) n
• Hebrew: נוזל (he) (nozel)
• Hungarian: folyadék (hu), lé (hu)
• Icelandic: vökvi (is) m
• Indonesian: cair (id)
• Italian: liquido (it) m
• Japanese: 液体 (ja) (えきたい, ekitai), 流体 (ja) (りゅうたい, ryūtai)
• Jèrriais: litchide m

• Khmer: រាវ (km) (reav)
• Korean: 액체 (ko) (aegche)
• Latin: liquidus (la) m
• Latvian: šķidrums (lv) m
• Lithuanian: skystis (lt) m
• Macedonian: течност (mk) (téčnost) f
• Malay: cecair (ms), cairan (ms)
• Occitan: liquid (oc) m
• Persian: مایع (fa) (mâye'), آبگونه (fa) (âbgune)
• Polish: ciecz (pl) f
• Portuguese: líquido (pt) m
• Romanian: lichid (ro) m
• Russian: жидкость (ru) (žídkost') f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: те̏чно̄ст (sh) f

  Roman: tekùćina (sh) f (Croatian), tȅčnōst (sh) f

• Sinhalese: දියරය (si) (diyaraya)
• Slovene: tekočina (sl) f
• Spanish: líquido (es) m
• Swahili: majimaji (sw)
• Swedish: vätska (sv) c
• Turkish: sıvı (tr)
• Vietnamese: nước (vi), chất lỏng (vi)
• Welsh: hylif (cy)

l or r sound

• Dutch: vloeiklank (nl) m
• Finnish: likvida (fi)
• Italian: liquida (it) f
• Russian: плавный звук (ru) (plávnyj zvuk) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ликвида (sh) f

  Roman: lìkvida (sh) f, tèkūćnīk (sh) m, desnik (sh) m, alveolar (sh) m

• Slovene: likvida (sl) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Afrikaans: vloeistof
• Arabic: محلول (maħlūl) m
• French: liquide (fr) m
• Hebrew: נוזל (nozél) m
• Icelandic: vökvi
• Indonesian: cairan
• Interlingua: liquido

• Lithuanian: skystis m
• Norwegian: væske f
• Romanian: lichid (ro) n
• Serbo-Croatian: tečno (sh) n/течно (sh) n
• Slovak: tekutina (sk) f
• Spanish: líquido (es) m
• Swedish: vätska (sv)
• Telugu: ద్రవం (dravam)

See also

• fluid

Adjective

liquid (comparative more liquid, superlative most liquid)

1. Flowing freely like water; fluid; not solid and not gaseous; composed of particles that move freely among each other on the slightest pressure.

   liquid nitrogen

2. (finance, of an asset) Easily sold or disposed of without losing value.
3. (finance, of a market) Having sufficient trading activity to make buying or selling easy.

Antonyms

• (flowing freely): solid; gaseous
• (easily sold): illiquid
• (having sufficient activity): illiquid

Related terms

• liquefiable
• liquefy
• liquidity
• liquify

Translations

fluid; not solid and not gaseous

• Afrikaans: vloeibare (af)
• Armenian: հեղուկ (heġuk)
• Asturian: líquidu (ast)
• Catalan: líquid (ca)
• Czech: tekutý (cs) m, kapalný (cs) m
• Danish: flydende (da)
• Dutch: vloeibaar (nl)
• Estonian: vedel (et)
• Finnish: nestemäinen (fi), neste- (fi) (in compounds)
• French: liquide (fr) m and f
• Galician: líquido (gl)
• German: flüssig (de)
• Greek: υγρός (el) (igrós) m
• Hebrew: נוזלי (he) (nozlí) m, נוזלית (he) (nozlít) f
• Hungarian: folyékony (hu)
• Indonesian: cair (id)
• Interlingua: liquide
• Irish: leachtach (ga)
• Italian: liquido (it) m, liquida (it) f
• Latvian: šķidrs m, šķidra f

• Lithuanian: skystas m
• Malay: cair (ms)
• Manx: so-eaysley (gv)
• Norwegian: flytende (no)
• Occitan: liquid (oc)
• Polish: ciekły (pl) m, płynny (pl) m
• Portuguese: líquido (pt)
• Romanian: lichid (ro) m, lichidă (ro) f
• Russian: жидкий (ru) (žídkij)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тѐкӯћӣ (sh), жидак (sh)

  Roman: tèkūćī (sh), žȉdak (sh)

• Slovak: tekutý
• Slovene: tekoče n, tekoč (sl) m, tekoča (sl) f
• Spanish: líquido (es)
• Swahili: majimaji (sw)
• Swedish: flytande (sv)
• Turkish: sıvı (tr)
• Vietnamese: nước (vi), lỏng (vi)
• Welsh: hylif (cy), hylifol (cy)

(of an asset) easily sold or disposed of

• Armenian: լիկվիդային (likvidayin)
• Asturian: líquidu (ast)
• Catalan: líquid (ca)
• Czech: likvidní (cs)
• Estonian: likviidne (et)
• Finnish: likvidi (fi)
• French: liquide (fr) m and f
• Galician: líquido (gl)
• German: disponibel (de)
• Hebrew: נזיל (he) (nazil)
• Latvian: likvīds m, likvīda f
• Lithuanian: : likvidus m

• Norwegian: likvid (no)
• Polish: płynny (pl) m
• Portuguese: líquido (pt)
• Russian: ликвидный (ru) (likvídnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ли̏квӣдан (sh)

  Roman: lȉkvīdan (sh)

• Slovak: likvidné n
• Slovene: likvidno (sl) n, likviden (sl) m, likvidna (sl) f
• Spanish: líquido (es)
• Swahili: majimaji (sw)

(of a market) having sufficient trading activity to make buying or selling easy

• Estonian: likviidne (et)
• Finnish: likvidi (fi)
• Polish: płynny (pl) m
• Portuguese: líquido (pt)

• Serbo-Croatian: lȉkvīdan (sh)
• Slovene: likviden (sl)
• Swahili: majimaji (sw)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Lithuanian: skysta f, likvidi f
• Slovak: likvidný m, likvidná f
• Telugu: ద్రవ (drava)

External links

• liquid in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• liquid in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911