aerosol

See also: Aerosol and aérosol

English

Etymology

From aero- +‎ sol (“solution”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛɚ.əˌsɔl/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɛɚ.əˌsɑl/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛə.ɹəˌsɒl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

aerosol (plural aerosols)

1. A mixture of fine solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in a gaseous medium.

   Examples of common aerosols are mist, fog, and smoke.

   • 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 386:

     The entire side of the barge chases itself inward, like the steel has become liquid and is running down a deain, and the metal turns bright as shock waves simply turn that thick layer of rust into an aerosol, blast it free from the steel borne on a wave of sound so powerful that it hurts Hiro down inside his chest and makes him feel sick.

2. An aerosol can.
3. The payload (e.g. insecticide, paint, oil, cosmetics) and propellant contained by an aerosol can.
4. (physics) A colloidal system in which the dispersed phase is composed of either solid or liquid particles and in which the dispersal medium is some gas, usually air.

Derived terms

• aerosol bomb
• aerosol cheese
• aerosolisation
• aerosolise
• aerosolization
• aerosolize
• aerosol string
• bioaerosol
• microaerosol
• nonaerosol

Descendants

• →? Arabic: أَيْرُوسُول (ʔayrūsūl)
• → Cebuano: ayrosol
• → Irish: aerasól
• → Punjabi: ਐਰੋਸੋਲ (airosol)
• → Welsh: erosol

Translations

fine solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in a gaseous medium

• Arabic: هَبَاء جَوِّيّ (ar) m (habāʔ jawwiyy), أَيْرُوسُول (ʔayrūsūl)
• Armenian: աերոզոլ (hy) (aerozol)
• Belarusian: аэразо́ль m (aerazólʹ)
• Bulgarian: аерозо́л m (aerozól)
• Catalan: aerosol (ca) m
• Cebuano: ayrosol
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 氣霧劑 / 气雾剂 (zh) (qìwùjì), 氣溶膠 / 气溶胶 (zh) (qìróngjiāo)

• Czech: aerosol (cs) m
• Dutch: aerosol (nl) m or n
• Esperanto: aerosolo
• Estonian: aerosool
• Finnish: aerosoli (fi)
• French: aérosol (fr) m
• Galician: aerosol m
• Georgian: აეროზოლი (aerozoli)
• German: Aerosol (de) n
• Greek: αεροζόλ (el) n (aerozól)
• Hungarian: aeroszol (hu)
• Icelandic: úðaefni n, agnúði m
• Ido: aerosolo (io)
• Irish: aerasól m
• Italian: aerosol (it) m
• Japanese: 煙霧質 (ja) (えんむしつ, enmushitsu), エアロゾル (ja) (earozoru)
• Kazakh: аэрокірне (aérokırne)
• Korean: 에어로졸 (eeorojol), 연무제(煙霧劑) (yeonmuje), 연무질(煙霧質) (yeonmujil)
• Latvian: aerosols m
• Lithuanian: aerozolis m
• Māori: wairehu, wainehu, wainehu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: aerosol (no) m

• Persian: هواپخش (havâpaxš)
• Polish: aerozol (pl) m, aerosol (pl) m (rare)
• Portuguese: aerossol m
• Punjabi: ਐਰੋਸੋਲ (airosol)
• Romanian: aerosol (ro) n
• Russian: аэрозо́ль (ru) m (aerozólʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: а̏еросо̄л m

  Latin: ȁerosōl (sh) m

• Slovak: aerosól m
• Spanish: aerosol (es) m
• Swedish: aerosol (sv)
• Thai: ละอองลอย (lá-ɔɔng-lɔɔi)
• Ukrainian: аерозо́ль (uk) m (aerozólʹ)
• Vietnamese: bình phun
• Welsh: erosol m

aerosol can — see aerosol can

contents of an aerosol can

physics: colloidal system with gas as dispersal medium

• Catalan: aerosol (ca) m
• Cebuano: ayrosol
• Finnish: aerosoli (fi)
• Italian: aerosol (it) m
• Russian: аэрозо́ль (ru) m (aerozólʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: а̏еросо̄л m

  Latin: ȁerosōl (sh) m

Verb

aerosol (third-person singular simple present aerosols, present participle (US) aerosoling or (UK) aerosolling, simple past and past participle (US) aerosoled or (UK) aerosolled)

1. (transitive) To spray with an aerosol.
   • 1958, Cooperative Economic Insect Report, page 727:

     The door entrance and space going up the steps was aerosoled just before passengers started to enter. A second spray was given after they were aboard.

Translations

Translations

• Polish: aerozolować (pl) impf, aerosolować (pl) impf (rare)

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “aerosol”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “aerosol”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• roseola

Basque

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish aerosol (“aerosol”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aeɾos̺ol/ [a.e.ɾo.s̺ol]
• Rhymes: -os̺ol, -ol
• Hyphenation: a‧e‧ro‧sol

Noun

aerosol inan

1. aerosol
2. aerosol can

Declension

Declension of aerosol (inan C-stem)

	indefinite	singular	plural	proximal plural
absolutive	aerosol	aerosola	aerosolak	aerosolok
ergative	aerosolek	aerosolak	aerosolek	aerosolok
dative	aerosoli	aerosolari	aerosolei	aerosoloi
genitive	aerosolen	aerosolaren	aerosolen	aerosolon
comitative	aerosolekin	aerosolarekin	aerosolekin	aerosolokin
causative	aerosolengatik	aerosolarengatik	aerosolengatik	aerosolongatik
benefactive	aerosolentzat	aerosolarentzat	aerosolentzat	aerosolontzat
instrumental	aerosolez	aerosolaz	aerosolez	aerosolotaz
inessive	aerosoletan	aerosolean	aerosoletan	aerosolotan
locative	aerosoletako	aerosoleko	aerosoletako	aerosolotako
allative	aerosoletara	aerosolera	aerosoletara	aerosolotara
terminative	aerosoletaraino	aerosoleraino	aerosoletaraino	aerosolotaraino
directive	aerosoletarantz	aerosolerantz	aerosoletarantz	aerosolotarantz
destinative	aerosoletarako	aerosolerako	aerosoletarako	aerosolotarako
ablative	aerosoletatik	aerosoletik	aerosoletatik	aerosolotatik
partitive	aerosolik	—	—	—
prolative	aerosoltzat	—	—	—

Further reading

• “aerosol”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [əˌe.ɾuˈsɔl]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [əˌe.ɾoˈsɔl]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [aˌe.ɾoˈsɔl]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

aerosol m (plural aerosols)

1. aerosol

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English aerosol. First attested in the 20th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈaɛrosol]

Noun

aerosol m inan

1. aerosol

Declension

Declension of aerosol (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	aerosol	aerosoly
genitive	aerosolu	aerosolů
dative	aerosolu	aerosolům
accusative	aerosol	aerosoly
vocative	aerosole	aerosoly
locative	aerosolu	aerosolech
instrumental	aerosolem	aerosoly

Derived terms

• aerosolový

Further reading

• “aerosol”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “aerosol”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “aerosol”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2026

Indonesian

Etymology

From English aerosol.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /aeˈrosol/ [a.eˈro.sɔl]
• Rhymes: -osol
• Syllabification: a‧e‧ro‧sol

Noun

aérosol (plural aerosol-aerosol)

1. (chemistry, physics) aerosol

Related terms

• aerosolisasi

Further reading

• “aerosol”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Etymology

From aero- +‎ sol.

Noun

aerosol m (invariable)

1. aerosol (all senses)

Derived terms

• aerosolizzare

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From aero- +‎ sol (solution).

Noun

aerosol m (definite singular aerosolen, indefinite plural aerosoler, definite plural aerosolene)

1. an aerosol

References

• “aerosol” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From aero- +‎ sol (solution).

Noun

aerosol m (definite singular aerosolen, indefinite plural aerosolar, definite plural aerosolane)

1. an aerosol

References

• “aerosol” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Aerosol. First attested in 1932.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.ɛˈrɔ.sɔl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔsɔl
• Syllabification: a‧e‧ro‧sol

Noun

aerosol m inan

1. (rare) alternative form of aerozol

Declension

Declension of aerosol

	singular	plural
nominative	aerosol	aerosole
genitive	aerosolu	aerosoli
dative	aerosolowi	aerosolom
accusative	aerosol	aerosole
instrumental	aerosolem	aerosolami
locative	aerosolu	aerosolach
vocative	aerosolu	aerosole

Further reading

• “aerosol”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[2] (in Polish)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French aérosol.

Noun

aerosol m (plural aerosoli)

1. aerosol

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	aerosol	aerosolul	aerosoli	aerosolii
genitive-dative	aerosol	aerosolului	aerosoli	aerosolilor
vocative	aerosolule		aerosolilor

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /âerosoːl/
• Hyphenation: a‧e‧ro‧sol

Noun

ȁerosōl m inan (Cyrillic spelling а̏еросо̄л)

1. aerosol

Declension

Declension of aerosol

	singular	plural
nominative	aerosol	aerosoli
genitive	aerosola	aerosola
dative	aerosolu	aerosolima
accusative	aerosol	aerosole
vocative	aerosole	aerosoli
locative	aerosolu	aerosolima
instrumental	aerosolom	aerosolima

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aeɾoˈsol/ [a.e.ɾoˈsol]
• Rhymes: -ol
• Syllabification: a‧e‧ro‧sol

Noun

aerosol m (plural aerosoles)

1. aerosol (gaseous or airborne cloud of particulate matter)

Derived terms

• aerosol de pimienta

Further reading

• “aerosol”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025