flux (flʌks
)
Definitions
noun
- a flow or discharge
- continuous change; instability
- a substance, such as borax or salt, that gives a low melting-point mixture with a metal oxide. It is used for cleaning metal surfaces during soldering, etc, and for protecting the surfaces of liquid metals
- metallurgy a chemical used to increase the fluidity of refining slags in order to promote the rate of chemical reaction
- a similar substance used in the making of glass
- physics
- the rate of flow of particles, energy, or a fluid, through a specified area, such as that of neutrons (neutron flux) or of light energy (luminous flux)
- the strength of a field in a given area expressed as the product of the area and the component of the field strength at right angles to the area ⇒
magnetic flux
electric flux
- pathology an excessive discharge of fluid from the body, such as watery faeces in diarrhoea
- the act or process of melting; fusion
- (in the philosophy of Heraclitus) the state of constant change in which all things exist
verb
- to make or become fluid
- (tr) to apply flux to (a metal, soldered joint, etc)
- (tr) an obsolete word for purge
Word Origin
C14: from Latin fluxus a flow, from fluere to flow
