Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to a substance that generates a magnetic field in the direction opposite to an externally applied magnetic field and is therefore repelled by it.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of lower permeability than air. See magnetic *circuit.
  • Pertaining to or exhibiting diamagnetism.
  • noun A substance which is diamagnetic in a magnetic field of force. See diamagnetism, 1.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Any substance, as bismuth, glass, phosphorous, etc., which in a field of magnetic force is differently affected from the ordinary magnetic bodies, as iron; that is, which tends to take a position at right angles to the lines of magnetic force, and is repelled by either pole of the magnet. Contrasted with paramagnetic and ferromagnetic.
  • adjective Pertaining to, or exhibiting the phenomena of, diamagnetism; taking, or being of a nature to take, a position at right angles to the lines of magnetic force. See paramagnetic.
  • adjective See under Attraction.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective physics Exhibiting diamagnetism; repelled by a magnet.
  • noun Any substance that exhibits diamagnetism.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or exhibiting diamagnetism; slightly repelled by a magnet

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined by Faraday, from dia- +‎ magnetic.

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Examples

  • Bi is a heavy brittle diamagnetic trivalent metallic element usually recovered as a by-product from ores of other metals.

    Bi « First 50 Words – Writing Prompts 2009

  • The coil is made of thin non-conducting diamagnetic metal tubes, in a circular shape, and using water as a resistor.

    Suppression Suppressed. Paranoia, conspiracy theories and the truth about free energy. 2008

  • The result is surprising because silver atoms are normally diamagnetic in the bulk.

    I am not making this up. 2006

  • The levitation of the frog in a magnetic field is a diamagnetic effect produced by the very strong magnetic field of the superconducting magnet.

    The silliest thing I read last week - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • March 5, 2006, 11: 22 pm education loans says: education loans posh contended diamagnetic Anastasia serene assistances

    The Volokh Conspiracy » What’s Wrong With This Picture? 2004

  • Second, it became clear that attempts of the early 1970s to derive de novo three-dimensional protein structures from conformation-dependent proton chemical shifts was not a promising approach, independent of whether these shifts were caused by intrinsic or extrinsic diamagnetic or paramagnetic probes.

    Kurt Wüthrich - Autobiography 2003

  • It's a matter of applying a diamagnetic force of about 10 Teslas, and some other equally impressive sounding abracadabra we don't understand in the least.

    CNN Transcript Oct 26, 2004 2004

  • The diamagnetic properties of the human body that allowed it to oppose the magnetic field applied by the hospital Perkins projector had only been properly and practically realized in the last thirty years.

    The Mocking Program Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2002

  • A compass needle made of a diamagnetic substance turns at right angles to the magnetic lines of force, and thus comes to point in an east-westerly direction.

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1952 - Presentation Speech 1964

  • If the neutral body be lighter than the medium, it exhibits the magnetic induction of iron with respect to polarity, but is nevertheless repelled; while if it be heavier than the medium, its direction is similar to that of diamagnetic bodies such as bismuth, but on the other hand exhibits the phenomena of attraction.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885 Various

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  • Term coined by Faraday.

    July 5, 2010