ICE CRYSTAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ice crystal mean? 

• ICE CRYSTAL (noun)
  The noun ICE CRYSTAL has 1 sense:

1. small crystals of ice

  Familiarity information: ICE CRYSTAL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ICE CRYSTAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Small crystals of ice

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

diamond dust; frost mist; frost snow; ice crystal; ice needle; poudrin; snow mist

Hypernyms ("ice crystal" is a kind of...):

crystal (a solid formed by the solidification of a chemical and having a highly regular atomic structure)

Meronyms (substance of "ice crystal"):

H2O; water (binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent)

Holonyms ("ice crystal" is a part of...):

downfall; precipitation (the falling to earth of any form of water (rain or snow or hail or sleet or mist))

 Context examples 

In Bilbao-Sainz's testing, adding 3.5 percent of either strawberry, raspberry or blackberry freeze‐dried powder reduced the water available for ice crystal formation during stirring and freezing, preventing crystal growth and slowing melting.

(Freeze-Dried Strawberries and Ice Cream Make for a Very Stable Relationship, Agricultural Research Service)

A substance that is used to protect from the effects of freezing, largely by preventing large ice crystals from forming.

(Cryoprotective Agent, NCI Thesaurus)

I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows were thick with the ice crystals.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But at high pressures, like those in crushingly deep oceans like Ganymede's, the ice crystal structures become more compact.

(Ganymede may harbor 'club sandwich' of oceans and ice, NASA)

The pull makes a glacier both slide on its base and deform, or "creep" - a slow movement caused by ice crystals slipping past one another under the pressure of the glacier's weight.

(NASA Finds Asian Glaciers Slowed by Ice Loss, NASA)

The bright clouds form when the flow of ambient air is perturbed and diverted upward over the dark vortex, causing gases to likely freeze into methane ice crystals.

(Hubble Imagery Confirms New Dark Spot on Neptune, NASA)

The bright clouds form when the flow of ambient air is perturbed and diverted upward over the dark vortex, causing gases to freeze into methane ice crystals.

(Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, NASA)

Without a stabilizer, ice cream—home-made or commercial—can become unpleasantly crunchy with the growth of large ice crystals.

(Freeze-Dried Strawberries and Ice Cream Make for a Very Stable Relationship, Agricultural Research Service)

Blueberry powder, on the other hand, did not prevent melt-down or ice crystal formation during refreezing, and the frozen dessert showed a little wheying off.

(Freeze-Dried Strawberries and Ice Cream Make for a Very Stable Relationship, Agricultural Research Service)