vitrification means turning to glass or glasslike material: the action or process of vitrifying a material: conversion into an amorphous solid free of any crystalline structure by addition or removal of heat or by mixture with an additive. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 84 out of 100.
vitrification is pronounced /ˈvɪ.tɹɪ.fɪˌkeɪ.ʃən/.
Why “vitrification” is a great word
VITRIFICATION — [Noun] The process or result of converting a material into a glass or glass-like amorphous solid, typically by heat or the addition of an agent. From Late Latin *vitrificātio* ("glassification"), from *vitrificāre* ("to glassify"), from Latin *vitrum* ("glass") + *-ificāre* (a suffix meaning "to make"). Unlike "crystallization," which denotes the formation of a highly ordered, repeating atomic structure, or "melting," which generally describes a phase change to a liquid state, vitrification is a specific solidification that freezes a liquid's chaos, bypassing order to lock it in a permanent, disordered stillness. It is the violent quenching of volcanic rock into obsidian, the eerie clarity of a laboratory-preserved embryo suspended in time, and the brittle, transparent cage of hard caramel—a solid that remembers being liquid, a quiet monument to arrested potential.
noun
- Turning to glass or glasslike material: the action or process of vitrifying a material: conversion into an amorphous solid free of any crystalline structure by addition or removal of heat or by mixture with an additive.“At this point overfiring begins, as is shown particularly by the volume curve, which indicates decided bloating, so that at 1450°C the clay has about the same volume it had at 1050°C before vitrification took place.”
- An instance of such conversion.
- The result of such conversion: a vitrified substance or object.