DIFFUSION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Diffusion

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/dɪfjˈuʒən/ Listen

Diffusion

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.

The spread of social institutions (and myths and skills) from one society to another.

The property of being diffused or dispersed. Synonym: dissemination.

The act of dispersing or diffusing something. Synonyms: dispersal, dispersion, dissemination. "The diffusion of knowledge"

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Etymology of 'Diffusion'

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"Diffusion" Quotes from Famous Books

... Prince of Orange, who in 1575 founded the university of Leyden as a reward to that city for its valiant defense against the Spaniards. Similar institutions were soon established at Groningen, Utrecht, and elsewhere; these various seats of learning produced a rivalry highly advantageous to the diffusion of knowledge, and great men arose in all branches of science and literature. Among the distinguished names of the sixteenth century those of the Latin writers ...

— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... the gemmules do not spread from bud to bud, but only through the tissues developed from each separate bud. We are led to this conclusion from the stock being rarely affected by the insertion of a bud or graft from a distinct variety. This non-diffusion of the gemmules is still more plainly shown in the case of ferns; for Mr. Bridgman[908] has proved that, when spores (which it should be remembered are of the nature of buds) are taken from a monstrous part of a frond, ...

— The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2) • Charles Darwin

... worst, and only those made with the strongest mixture of cement, 1 to 1, withstood the severe frost experienced. The best results were obtained when the mortar was made compact, as such a mixture only allowed diffusion to take place so slowly that its effect was negligible; but when, on the other hand, the mortar was loose, the salts rapidly penetrated to the interior of the mass, where chemical changes took place, and caused it to disintegrate. The concrete blocks made with 1 to 3 mortar disintegrated in nearly ...

— The Sewerage of Sea Coast Towns • Henry C. Adams

... part in the history of the organic world, almost inevitably follows from the principle of natural selection; for old forms are supplanted by new and improved forms. Neither single species nor groups of species reappear when the chain of ordinary generation is once broken. The gradual diffusion of dominant forms, with the slow modification of their descendants, causes the forms of life, after long intervals of time, to appear as if they had changed simultaneously throughout the world. The fact of the fossil remains ...

— Little Masterpieces of Science: - The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer • Various

... two of hours they are among the tobacco-fields and the slave-pens of Virginia. The war passion burned like scattered coals of fire in the households of Revolutionary times; now it rushes all through the land like a flame over the prairie. And this instant diffusion of every fact and feeling produces another singular effect in the equalizing and steadying of public opinion. We may not be able to see a month ahead of us; but as to what has passed a week afterwards it is as thoroughly talked out and judged as ...

— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

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