WATER VAPOR Definition & Meaning

water vapor

noun

a dispersion, in air, of molecules of water, especially as produced by evaporation at ambient temperatures rather than by boiling. Compare steam ( def 2 ).

water vapor

Water in its gaseous state, especially in the atmosphere and at a temperature below the boiling point. Water vapor in the atmosphere serves as the raw material for cloud and rain formation. It also helps regulate the Earth's temperature by reflecting and scattering radiation from the Sun and by absorbing the Earth's infrared radiation.
See also vapor

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of water vapor¹

First recorded in 1875–80

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Depending on the type of rocket fuel used, launches produce nitrogen oxides, chlorine, black carbon particles, water vapor, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide — and no propellant avoids creating of some kind of emissions.

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To learn this, scientists at the University of Arkansas recreated the arid conditions which exist on Mars, in particular the average temperature of −70 °C and very low water vapor content.

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Some scientists like Dr. Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, say that Hansen neglected to focus on one of the major variables contributing to climate change: water vapor.

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Atmospheric river storms are long plumes of water vapor that can pour over from the Pacific Ocean into California.

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California swung dramatically from drought to deluge as atmospheric rivers — literal rivers of water vapor in the sky — pummeled the state.

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