Autopolymerization

//ˌɔ.toʊˌpɑl.ɪ.mɚ.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A chemical reaction in which a monomer undergoes polymerization spontaneously, often due to environmental factors such as heat, light, or inherent instability. countable, uncountable

    "It is usually necessary to protect the purified monomers from autopolymerization in storage. The inhibitor used for this purpose is removed by distillation or washing."

  2. 2
    The process by which an autopolymer hardens. countable, uncountable

Example

More examples

"It is usually necessary to protect the purified monomers from autopolymerization in storage. The inhibitor used for this purpose is removed by distillation or washing."

Etymology

From auto- + polymerization.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.