Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The state or property of being porous.
- noun A structure or part that is porous.
- noun The ratio of the volume of all the pores in a material to the volume of the whole.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state or quality of being porose, porous, or pervious; perforation.
- noun A pore or perforation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality or state of being porous; -- opposed to
density .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable The state of being
porous - noun countable A
measure of how porous a material is; theratio of the volume ofpores to the total volume
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the property of being porous; being able to absorb fluids
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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So we have the ability to measure what's called porosity, which is how big - how much wood volume as a whole, so how much stuff could there be and whether it's connected or not?
unknown title 2011
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Windbreaks should have from 20-50% porosity, that is allow
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Before leaving the subject of local sandstones it will be necessary to refer to one quality they have which is of excellent utility as regards the storage of water, but which is decidedly a disadvantage in building stone -- that is, their porosity.
The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, Jan-Mar, 1890 Various
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The gaps in the strands (also known as porosity) also cause hair to absorb moisture from the air like crazy -- explaining why many of us turn into Bozo the Clown on a rainy day.
StyleList 2010
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The rock had an amazing 30% porosity, meaning that, like a sponge, it had lots of holes for holding gas.
XXI Energy Goes Deep Into the Gulf Christopher Helman 2010
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The rock had an amazing 30% porosity, meaning that, like a sponge, it had lots of holes for holding gas.
XXI Energy Goes Deep Into the Gulf Christopher Helman 2010
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“We felt that we wanted to maintain the kind of porosity that we get in the best parts of the city,” said architect Rafael Pelli, who designed the plan along with FxFowle.
West Side Rail Yards Proposal No. 2: Durst-Vornado Floats, Moves, Relocates People 2007
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“We felt that we wanted to maintain the kind of porosity that we get in the best parts of the city,” said architect Rafael Pelli, who designed the plan along with FxFowle.
West Side Rail Yards Proposal No. 2: Durst-Vornado Floats, Moves, Relocates People 2007
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Nitrogen fixing trees can improve soil physical properties, such as porosity and bulk density, and increase soil nutrient availability.
Chapter 6 1996
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But the awards if the sand package continues and has these big, thick high-pressured sands that had the kind of porosity and permeability we had at JB Mountain and Flatrock, which we expect them to be, as we said the flow rates of 50 to 100 million a day in 10 feet of water.
elisheba commented on the word porosity
porosity/porousness. what are the differences in usage?
September 15, 2008
mollusque commented on the word porosity
I think porosity can always be used in place porousness, but not vice versa. One can say "a porosity in the surface marred the finish", which means that a particular area was flawed. But one would say "The porousness of the surface marred the finish", meaning that the whole surface was flawed.
September 15, 2008
elisheba commented on the word porosity
that was illuminating, thank you! :-)
September 15, 2008