adiabatic

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adiabatic

/ˌeɪ.dɪəˈbæt.ɪk/
/ˌæd.ɪəˈbæt.ɪk/
/ˌeɪ.daɪ.əˈbæt.ɪk/

Rhymes with -ætɪk

Where it comes from

19th-century coinage (introduced by W. J. M. Rankine in the 1860s) based on Ancient Greek ἀδιάβατος (adiábatos, “impassable”), used of terrain (rivers, forests) by Xenophon, from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + διά (diá, “through”) + βατός (batós, “passable”), from βαίνω (baínō, “to go”).

adjective

not comparable, of a process Without gain or loss of heat (and thus with no change in entropy, in the quasistatic approximation). The line drawn on the indicator diagram in the latter case has been named by Professor Rankine an Adiabatic line, because it is defined by the condition that heat is not allowed to pass through (διαβαίνειν) the vessel which confines the substance.
Opposite: diabatic
not comparable, of a process Involving the slow change of the Hamiltonian of a system from its initial value to a final value. In this section we examine the limiting cases when T is very small (sudden change) and very large (adiabatic change).
Opposite: nonadiabatic

noun adiabatics

An adiabatic curve or graph

Translations

Every language

adj occurring without gain or loss of heat

Español	adiabático
中文	絕熱的 /绝热的 juérè de
हिन्दी	रुद्धोष्म ruddhoṣma
Português	adiabático
Français	adiabatique
Deutsch	adiabatisch
Italiano	adiabatico
Ελληνικά	αδιαβατικός adiavatikós
Română	adiabatic
Русский	адиабати́ческий adiabatíčeskij
Tiếng Việt	đoạn nhiệt

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MLA

"adiabatic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/adiabatic. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

adiabatic. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/adiabatic

Chicago

"adiabatic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/adiabatic.

BibTeX

@misc{adiabatic_2026,
  title = {adiabatic},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/adiabatic},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}