capillarity

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a phenomenon associated with surface tension and resulting in the elevation or depression of liquids in capillaries

From French capillarité.

M. Dumont, who advocates this view, has happily named it the law of capillarity. — A history of economic doctrines : $b from the time of the physiocrats to the present day, Charles Gide
It is necessary rather to know the composition of the substances in question--the geological strata, the atmospheric actions, the quality of the soil, the minerals, the waters, the density of the different bodies, their capillarity, and what not. — Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

capillary action

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