PHYSICAL PHENOMENON

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does physical phenomenon mean? 

• PHYSICAL PHENOMENON (noun)
  The noun PHYSICAL PHENOMENON has 1 sense:

1. a natural phenomenon involving the physical properties of matter and energy

  Familiarity information: PHYSICAL PHENOMENON used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PHYSICAL PHENOMENON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A natural phenomenon involving the physical properties of matter and energy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("physical phenomenon" is a kind of...):

natural phenomenon (all phenomena that are not artificial)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "physical phenomenon"):

propagation (the movement of a wave through a medium)

opacity (the phenomenon of not permitting the passage of electromagnetic radiation)

optical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon related to or involving light)

force per unit area; pressure; pressure level (the force applied to a unit area of surface; measured in pascals (SI unit) or in dynes (cgs unit))

reflection; reflexion (the phenomenon of a propagating wave (light or sound) being thrown back from a surface)

refraction (the change in direction of a propagating wave (light or sound) when passing from one medium to another)

resolution; resolving power (the ability of a microscope or telescope to measure the angular separation of images that are close together)

resolution ((computer science) the number of pixels per square inch on a computer-generated display; the greater the resolution, the better the picture)

conduction; conductivity (the transmission of heat or electricity or sound)

mechanical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the equilibrium or motion of objects)

fundamental interaction; interaction ((physics) the transfer of energy between elementary particles or between an elementary particle and a field or between fields; mediated by gauge bosons)

surface tension (a phenomenon at the surface of a liquid caused by intermolecular forces)

syzygy (the straight line configuration of 3 celestial bodies (as the sun and earth and moon) in a gravitational system)

transparence; transparency (permitting the free passage of electromagnetic radiation)

turbulence; turbulency (unstable flow of a liquid or gas)

chop (the irregular motion of waves (usually caused by wind blowing in a direction opposite to the tide))

floatation; flotation (the phenomenon of floating (remaining on the surface of a liquid without sinking))

acoustic phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the production or transmission of sound)

resonance (an excited state of a stable particle causing a sharp maximum in the probability of absorption of electromagnetic radiation)

hysteresis (the lagging of an effect behind its cause; especially the phenomenon in which the magnetic induction of a ferromagnetic material lags behind the changing magnetic field)

force ((physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity)

field; field of force; force field (the space around a radiating body within which its electromagnetic oscillations can exert force on another similar body not in contact with it)

event (a phenomenon located at a single point in space-time; the fundamental observational entity in relativity theory)

power ((physics) the rate of doing work; measured in watts (= joules/second))

energy; free energy ((physics) a thermodynamic quantity equivalent to the capacity of a physical system to do work; the units of energy are joules or ergs)

energy (any source of usable power)

electricity (a physical phenomenon associated with stationary or moving electrons and protons)

electrical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon involving electricity)

decalescence (phenomenon that occurs when a metal is being heated and there is a sudden slowing in the rate of temperature increase; slowing is caused by a change in the internal crystal structure of the metal)

cloud (any collection of particles (e.g., smoke or dust) or gases that is visible)

chaos (the formless and disordered state of matter before the creation of the cosmos)

boundary layer (the layer of slower flow of a fluid past a surface)

atmospheric phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the atmosphere)

 Context examples 

This is due to a physical phenomenon called optical harmonic generation, which is characteristic of nonlinear materials.

(Graphene paves the way to faster high-speed communications, University of Cambridge)

A physical phenomenon associated with stationary or moving electrons and protons; energy made available by the flow of electric charge through a conductor.

(Electricity, NCI Thesaurus)

A physical phenomenon involving the interaction of atomic nuclei placed in an external magnetic field with an applied electromagnetic field oscillating at a particular frequency.

(Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, NCI Thesaurus)