diffusion

See also: Diffusion

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin diffūsiō, from diffundō; can be decomposed as diffuse +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈfjuː.ʒən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɪˈfju.ʒən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːʒən
• Hyphenation: dif‧fu‧sion

Noun

diffusion (countable and uncountable, plural diffusions)

1. The act of diffusing or dispersing something, or the property of being diffused or dispersed; dispersion.
2. (physics) The scattering of light by reflection from a rough surface, or by passage through a translucent medium.
3. (physics) The intermingling of the molecules of a fluid due to random thermal agitation.

   gaseous diffusion

4. The spread of cultural or linguistic practices, or social institutions, in one or more communities.
   • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 99:

     Even the false-necked vase, though it reaches its widest diffusion at this epoch, is, as we have seen, a type found existing in much earlier strata.

5. (marketing) The gradual spread and adoption of goods or services.
   • 2026 February 21, David Streitfeld, quoting Sam Altman, “People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The chief salesman of the A.I. boom, Sam Altman of OpenAI, said there was more resistance to “the diffusion, the absorption” of A.I. into the culture and economy than he expected.

6. (physics, weather) Exchange of airborne media between regions in space in an apparently random motion of a small scale.
7. The movement of water vapor from regions of high concentration (high water vapor pressure) toward regions of lower concentration.

Derived terms

• autodiffusion
• biodiffusion
• cultural diffusion
• diffusional
• diffusion-barrier
• diffusion hypoxia
• diffusionism
• diffusionist
• diffusionless
• elastodiffusion
• electrodiffusion
• error diffusion
• hydrodiffusion
• hyperdiffusion
• immunodiffusion
• interdiffusion
• microdiffusion
• photodiffusion
• prediffusion
• pseudodiffusion
• rediffusion
• rotodiffusion
• self-diffusion
• subdiffusion
• superdiffusion
• thermodiffusion
• vibrodiffusion

Related terms

• diffuseness
• diffusity

Translations

in physics, scattering of light

• Arabic: اِنْتِشَار (ar) m (intišār)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 散射 (zh)

• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• French: diffusion (fr) f
• German: Streuung (de) f
• Hindi: विसरण (hi) m (visaraṇ)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: انتشار (fa) (entešâr)
• Polish: rozprzestrzenianie (pl) n
• Russian: рассе́ивание (ru) n (rasséivanije)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can

in physics, intermingling of molecules

• Abkhaz: аилалара (ajlalara)
• Bulgarian: дифузия (bg) f (difuzija)
• Catalan: difusió (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 擴散 / 扩散 (zh) (kuòsàn)

• Czech: difuze f
• Dutch: diffusie (nl) f
• Finnish: diffuusio (fi)
• French: diffusion (fr) f
• German: Diffusion (de) f
• Hindi: विसरण (hi) m (visaraṇ)
• Indonesian: difusi (id)
• Japanese: 拡散 (ja) (かくさん, kakusan)
• Māori: ingotanga
• Polish: dyfuzja (pl) f
• Portuguese: difusão (pt) f
• Romanian: difuzie (ro) f
• Russian: диффу́зия (ru) f (diffúzija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: дифузија f

  Latin: difuzija (sh) f

• Spanish: difusión (es) f
• Tagalog: panunuot
• Turkish: difüzyon (tr)
• Welsh: trylediad m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Irish: ^{(please verify)} idirleathadh m

See also

• diffuser

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin diffusiōnem. By surface analysis, diffuser +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.fy.zjɔ̃/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Noun

diffusion f (plural diffusions)

1. broadcasting, showing
2. dissemination, diffusion (of culture, knowledge, etc.)
3. circulation (of a news medium)
4. (physics) diffusion

Derived terms

• liste de diffusion

Related terms

• diffus
• diffuser

Descendants

• → Dutch: diffusie
  • → Indonesian: difusi
• → Romanian: difuziune
• → Turkish: difüzyon

See also

• émission

Further reading

• “diffusion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012