vapour

«vapour» in Mova's school dictionary: a gas made when a liquid is heated or evaporates… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (vapour — uncountable; British spelling; American: vapor)

meaning for a pupil

1) Vapour is a gas made when a liquid is heated or evaporates, especially water vapour. tree →

2) Vapour is tiny drops of liquid in the air that you can see, like mist or steam. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science and the water cycle, water evaporates into water vapour, which rises, cools and condenses into clouds, then falls as rain. Water vapour itself is invisible; the white «steam» from a kettle is tiny drops that have already condensed. In safety, hot vapour (steam) burns; vapours from glue, paint or cleaning products can be harmful, so use them in fresh air.

examples

• Water turns into water vapour when it is heated. tree →
• Clouds form when water vapour cools. tree →
• The window was misty with vapour from the shower. tree →
• Hot vapour from the kettle can burn you. tree →
• Open a window to let the paint vapour out. tree →
• Water vapour is a gas. tree →
• The cold glass was covered in drops from the vapour in the air. tree →
• Evaporation turns liquid into vapour. tree →
• Almost unconsciously he opened it, and a purple vapour came pouring out. tree →

note

British, Canadian, Australian, NZ and Irish spelling: «vapour»; American: «vapor». Uncountable. Trap: you cannot see water vapour; what you see as steam or clouds is liquid droplets. Verb: «evaporate»; the opposite change is «condense».

In the corpora

• Breathed-out air is warm and full of water vapour, which turns into tiny droplets of mist on cold glass.
• Breath is warm and carries water vapour, which turns into tiny droplets you can see as a cloud in cold air.
• Water can be ice, liquid water or invisible water vapour, and it moves between these states when it is heated or cooled.
• Evaporation happens at the surface of a liquid at any temperature, when the fastest particles escape as vapour.
• Puddles dry faster on sunny, windy days: the sun gives energy and the wind carries the vapour away.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «vapour» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.