Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or being a reversible thermodynamic process that occurs without gain or loss of heat and without a change in entropy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Without transference: used in thermodynamics of a change in volume, whether by expansion or contraction, unaccompanied by a gain or loss of heat.
  • noun An adiabatic line.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Physics) Not giving out or receiving heat.
  • adjective a curve exhibiting the variations of pressure and volume of a fluid when it expands without either receiving or giving out heat.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective physics (of a thermodynamic process) Occurring without gain or loss of heat.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective occurring without loss or gain of heat

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek adiabatos, impassable : a-, not; see a– + diabatos, passable (dia-, dia- + batos, passable, from bainein, to go; see gwā- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀδιάβατος (adiabatos, "impassible"), from ἀ (a, "not") + διά (dia, "through") + βατός (batos, "passable"), from βαίνειν (bainein, "to go"). See βαίνω (bainō).

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