dispersion
dispersion Lexical Profile
dispersion Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The action or process of distributing people, organisms, or things over a wide area, or the state of being scattered.
"Wind and migratory birds play a vital role in the dispersion of plant seeds across the island."
The separation of visible white light or other electromagnetic radiation into components of different wavelengths, such as when passing through a prism.
"A glass prism demonstrates optical dispersion by splitting a beam of sunlight into a vivid rainbow spectrum."
The extent to which numerical values in a statistical distribution differ from a central value such as the mean or median.
"Standard deviation and interquartile range are two common metrics used to measure statistical dispersion."
A mixture in which fine particles of one substance are scattered evenly throughout another substance without dissolving.
"Milk and paint are everyday examples of colloidal dispersions where microscopic particles remain suspended in liquid."
Word Nuance & Usage
While 'dispersion' and 'dispersal' both refer to scattering, 'dispersion' is preferred in technical, scientific, and statistical contexts (such as light dispersion or data variance), whereas 'dispersal' more commonly describes the biological spreading of seeds, animals, or crowds.
• Rhymes for dispersion
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 14th century from Old French 'dispersion' and directly from Latin 'dispersionem' (a scattering), a noun of action from the past participle stem of 'dispergere', formed from 'dis-' (apart, abroad) and 'spargere' (to scatter or strew).