Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA 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.
nounAny of a class of consonant sounds that includes l and r.
The chemist carefully poured the clear ____ into a small glass beaker for testing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Water is a ____ at room temperature, but it will turn into a solid if the temperature drops below zero.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *wleykʷ-
Proto-Indo-European *wlikʷ-éh₁-ye-ti
Proto-Italic *wlikʷēō
Latin liqueō
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der.
Proto-Italic *-iðos
Latin -idus
Latin liquidusbor.
Old French liquidebor.
Middle English liquide
English liquid
From Middle English liquide, from Old French liquide, from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid, moist”), from liqueō (“to be liquid, be fluid”). Doublet of liquidus. As a term for a consonant, it comes from Latin liquida (cōnsōnāns), a calque of Ancient Greek ὑγρὸν (σύμφωνον) (hugròn (súmphōnon), “liquid consonant”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped."
— 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
"Many female forenames are regarded as euphonyms. What is and is not euphonious is necessarily subjective, but it could be suggested that names containing labials (b, m), sibilants (s, sh) and liquids (l, r) are more likely to be euphonyms than those that do not."
— 1996, Adrian Room, An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies, page 41:
"[…]-able does not attach to verbs ending in a postconsonantal liquid […]"
— 1999, Ingo Plag, Morphological Productivity, page 86: