Diffusion
[dɪ'fjuːʒ(ə)n] or [dɪ'fjʊʒən]
Definition
(noun.) the spread of social institutions (and myths and skills) from one society to another.
(noun.) (physics) the process in which there is movement of a substance from an area of high concentration of that substance to an area of lower concentration.
Typist: Osborn--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The act of diffusing, or the state of being diffused; a spreading; extension; dissemination; circulation; dispersion.
(n.) The act of passing by osmosis through animal membranes, as in the distribution of poisons, gases, etc., through the body. Unlike absorption, diffusion may go on after death, that is, after the blood ceases to circulate.
Edited by Dinah
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Dispersion, spread, extension, propagation, circulation, distribution.
Typed by Lillian
Examples
- The centre of diffusion of wheat was somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean region. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Experience, with young people, easily illustrates the possibility and value of diffusion. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- All high school boys and girls know the difference between the concentration and the diffusion of this impulse, although they would be hopelessly bewildered by the use of terms. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- But though there was a wide diffusion of knowledge under the empire, there was no true intellectual progress. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Thus the very workingmen who agitate for a better diffusion of wealth display a marked hostility to improvements in the production of it. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The seed must have been brought age by age from that distant centre of diffusion. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- There seemed a general diffusion of cheerfulness on the occasion. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
Editor: Olivia